MORE DRUG CASES FOR COPS

Local RCMP saw more drug activity, opened fewer files for drunk
driving and recorded more accidents in the first six months of 2007
than the same six months last year.

On Monday, Kelowna RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon will make his monthly
report to council providing a wrap up of what's happened in the first
six months of the year in his detachment.

The figures show drugs and assaults are top of the heap when it comes
to police activity.

Figures for June alone reveal RCMP were concentrating on the issue,
opening 46 per cent more files this year than they did over the same
period last year.

"Members of the Downtown Enforcement Unit conducted six drug search
warrants in a variety of areas within Kelowna, more predominantly on
Hein Road," McKinnon's report states.

He notes the area around Bernard Avenue and Bertram Street has also
become a hot spot for drug activity and the detachment has been given
authorization to deal with trespassers in the area under the Trespass
Act.

The statistics also show local RCMP are still being asked to work
harder than in previous years.

The detachment continues to receive more calls for service and must
try to house more detainees in its cells compared to the first six
months of 2006.

Calls for service are up six per cent and the record of prisoners
lodged in the cells shows four per cent more detainees had to be
accommodated in the first six months of the year than last year,
occasionally leaving some prisoners to double-bunk in jail.

The statistics also show assaults are up 33 per cent over last year,
following renewed attention to domestic violence from the City of
Kelowna's advisory committee on community and women's issues which
held an all-day seminar on the issue in the spring.

But police have opened 22 per cent less files for impaired driving so
far this year, although motor vehicle accidents rose 25 per cent.