DRUGS DOMINATE POLICING IN CITY

Staff-Sgt. Steve Berney is the NCO in charge of operations at the Penticton
RCMP detachment. After he pin-pointed Penticton as his next desired
destination, the operations NCO job opened last November. Berney was
transferred to Penticton from his post as detachment commander in Fort St.
James and started his new position in February. Berney talked to Penticton
Western News reporter Tracy Clark about his role with the detachment and
its relationship with the community, as well as the future of the local
RCMP detachment.

PWN: You said you started at the Penticton RCMP detachment Feb. 1. How has
the detachment changed since your arrival?

Berney: This position as the operational NCO, my job is to co-ordinate and
ensure the operation of the detachment is working effectively with the
community and within itself. Being here all the time seems to have made
things a little more smoother. When this position is vacant, things don't
run as smooth or don't run as effectively as we normally would expect it to
run. So I think me being here, not necessarily myself, but this position
being filled and maintained regularly, it seems to put things on track and
maintains an effective momentum.

PWN: You came from a more rural area before. What adjustments have you had
to go through coming from a completely different community?

Berney: Well, I came from Fort St. James as the detachment commander. I was
busy both operationally and administratively. I am still busy, but just
more operationally. I had to deal with the mayors, the chiefs of the Indian
bands that were within my jurisdiction. Community consultation groups. More
touching base with the community leaders and groups that were active. Here,
I deal with mostly the volume. There is more volume that I have to deal
with, more members that I have deal with, more personnel issues I have to
delve into. So those are the differences, the volume of files and
incidences we incur here and also the more complex and more resource issues.

PWN: I heard recently there are a lot more depot graduates at the
detachment. Does that mean Penticton is a training ground and what kind of
effect does that have?

Berney: Well I don't think we're more of a training ground than other
detachments. Our detachment has taken, as far as my experience, the same
percentage as other detachments for recruits. This traditionally has been a
place where people have wanted to come and stay longer, so you get people
with more seniority. But with attrition from the baby boomers moving on to
retire or going on to a second career we're having to replace (them) with
recruits. Right at this moment, we have four recruits here. That seems to
be more accelerated because of attrition and not because we're a training
detachment. But I can say that we do try to not only meet the community
needs and the detachment needs, but we try to meet the needs of the members
who want to specialize or get into a certain area of policing - for
instance plain clothes work or forensic identification or drug squad and
those type of things.

PWN: What are some of the major issues surrounding the RCMP in Penticton?

Berney: I guess one of the bigger things is the drugs - illegal drug use in
our community. Illegal drug use and intoxicants seem to touch most of our
files that we deal with. When we go to a domestic, most likely there is
alcohol involvement. Or when we go to a confrontation on the street,
assaults, there is usually alcohol and drug involvement. Any time we go to
a break and enter, we find the people who have committed it they have
broken into the house to gain money to go out and buy drugs. So everything
seems to fall back to drugs or intoxicants.

PWN: Drugs are obviously a major problem here. What are you doing to combat
the drug trade in the community and how well is the plan working?

Berney: We have a task force that concentrates on problem areas and, of
course, one of the areas is illegal use of drugs. We're working with the
community, as well - because they are the eyes and ears of us - to develop
information so that we can go on to detect who the traffickers are. We work
with the crime prevention office here. We put education out to the schools.
I think it's working well. I think it's working really well. The members of
our task force are very effective. They're putting in long hours and
they're going above and beyond the normal expected level of performance in
terms of time they spend there and effort they put into it. So I think
they're being very effective.

PWN: With the influx of tourists in the summer, how does your policing
strategy change?

Berney: The sheer volume of people coming into the community increases the
probability and does actually increase the number of incidences we have to
become involved in. So we have to - and the city works well with us - find
extra funding for seasonal policing. We have extras foot patrols, we have
extra bike patrols, we have extra boat patrols just to keep pace with the
extra volume, being that this is a tourist resort destination.

PWN: There was a lot of controversy surround the policing of major events
such as the Peach City Beach Cruise, the August long weekend and Peachfest.
What were your expectations for those weekends and how did things turn out?

Berney: Traditionally, like I said, there are a lot of extra people who
come into our community, especially during the B.C. Day long weekend. This
particular year is different from last year in that, from what I know, Mr.
Muscle contest was put in the same weekend as the B.C. Day long weekend and
the weekend that followed was Peachfest. So what you had in effect, was
eight days of events, which kept people here longer and of course increased
the number of incidents you would come in contact with, which is what was
the case. We did bring in people to have extra hours for our members that
were off to work and that seemed to help and, if we didn't, we wouldn't
have been able to handle the number of calls and the number of incidences
we came across.

PWN: The use of TASERs has been in the news. What do you think of the use
of TASERs?

Berney: I support the use of the TASER. There have been a number of studies
that have shown that there is no long-term injuries from the use of TASERs.
And where it fits in our continuum of use of force is where a person is
combative and resistant, we can use that level of force rather than
strong-arming or applying physical force to the person to contain them. We
apply the TASER and in almost every situation I can't think of any that
they haven't become - as soon as we've applied the TASER - they've become
co-operative.

Rather than almost breaking someone's arm (while) trying to put their arms
behind their back to hand cuff them, they're compliant and those types of
injuries we're not getting involved in. I think it's safer. Safer both for
the person we're trying to control and safer for the member as well.

PWN: What kind of comments - positive and negative - have you received from
the community?

Berney: I found that the organizers, for instance, of the PCBC seemed to
have experienced a better relationship with us. More open and more
communication, more contact with us and it seemed to be a positive approach
to an event. Try to make it successful with organizers. Try to make it a
success. With our special occasion licences - I work with the Mr. Muscle
and Bikini Contest organizers to make their beer garden more of a success.
And I think the idea of trying to make it a success, trying to go in with
different solutions to make it a success. Seeing the difference in that was
a positive thing.

As far as the negative, I think there is a lot of debate on our involvement
and I think that is indicative of any authoritative figure or any
authoritative arm of the state, or arm of the police or arm of the
community. When we have to control a situation we have to contend with
complaints coming up. I think that's the only negative, if anything
negative. But often times when we explain ourselves, explain the actual
situation, people do understand and are very supportive of our actions.

PWN: What can residents expect to see from the Penticton RCMP in the near
future?

Berney: We are more in partnership with the community (and have) more
communication with the community and organizers of events. (It is a)
positive approach and we're there to listen and if we need to adjust any of
our approaches I will be open to that. More open, honest, bilateral
communication with the community.