MAKING A CASE FOR MORE COPS

City council: Detachment staff currently well below the minimum
standards for service.

As far as public participation went, last Wednesday's public input
meeting on policing issues fell flat, with only five members of the
public in attendance.-But that doesn't mean the meeting wasn't a
success for the RCMP, who clearly made an impact with local
politicians about the need to spend more public money for additional
police officers in Salmon Arm.

The RCMP's message was clear: they simply don't have the resources to
keep up with the case load.

Police expressed grave concerns about the lack of resources in dealing
with the most serious crimes, but also noted other offences like
traffic enforcement are being noticeably neglected because officers
are too busy responding to calls for service.

Council heard powerful presentations from front-line police officers,
who shared some of their daily experiences with the growing crime rate
in Salmon Arm.

"If we take shortcuts, somebody will get away with murder," Cpl.
Michel Grondin, who is in Salmon Arm's general investigation section,
which handles the more serious crimes in the community. "That is
happening because of staffing. We are cutting here and cutting there
to save time, but I worry constantly about jeopardizing the integrity
of our investigations," he told council.

Grondin spoke of how, in his opinion, 90 per cent of local crime is
drug and alcohol related.

"I don't diminish alcohol as a problem, especially with violent
crimes, but cocaine is absolutely this community's number-one problem."

He also spoke about the increasing sophistication of marijuana drug
growing operations and their local links with organized crime groups
like the Hell's Angels. He says the detachment gets several calls a
week with information about possible drug operations.

"We will investigate each call we get, but when we get to it is a
different story."

Both Grondin and Cst. Scott Langtry spoke about how much time needs to
be spent investigating and then properly processing information for
the justice system.

"People think, oh, you know who did it, arrest them and throw them in
jail. That's not how it works. We have to collect sufficient evidence
and the courts are very demanding on us to prove our cases and that
goes for any crime we investigate," said Grondin.

Langtry is a recent addition to the Salmon Arm detachment, and as a
result of a limited duration posting, he was able to pick which
detachment in B.C. he wanted to serve. Langtry chose Salmon Arm for
the good schools, warm climate and recreation opportunities. But he
says his arrival was a bit of a shock.

"I was surprised I got here. I thought I'd hit the jackpot, but then
on my first day I had 17 calls. My thought was, 'what have I done?'"

Langtry spoke of the time it takes to handle routine police matters.
Arresting an impaired driver is going to take at least four hours to
process -- and that's only one incident. Meanwhile the phone keeps
ringing with other calls for service.

"You can always do more, but there are things where you know you
should be doing more and you are just not doing them... You have a
group of people here who are truly committed to try and help people,
but the overload of work is bringing them down because they are simply
not able to help people the way they want to."

This caught the attention of councillors.

"It's been so enlightening to hear a day in your life," said Coun.
Kevin Flynn. "We get most of our ideas about crime from shows like
Cold Case and CSI, where it seems so easy. I, for one, did not
understand the time that has to go in for something like an impaired
driver."

Detachment head Staff Sgt. Dave Williams says in his discussion with a
wide range of community members, the number-one request he hears is
for greater police visibility.

"They want to see us on the road, in the downtown, dealing with grow
houses, at the schools. Right now, that is difficult to maintain."

The- Salmon Arm detachment is supposed to have one officer dedicated
to traffic enforcement. That position has been left vacant in order to
help cover general duties.

"From what you have told us, we are not meeting the needs of the
community even to a minimum level," said Coun. Ivan Idzan. "...We are
going to have to communicate to the public that next year we are
looking at a five, eight, 10 per cent increase. I hope the community
will say this is a good thing, that we recognize the need, because,
holy cow, how can we not justify money for something as essential as
policing our community?"

Council members briefly touched on how to deal with the increased
costs associated with adding two officers, which equates to
approximately $116,000 per officer each year, plus additional
resources like the potential purchase of additional police vehicles.

Coun. Chad Eliason noted that bringing new officers into the
detachment may have to be phased in over a few years, a plan which has
been done in the past.

"It's ugly to raise taxes, and we're looking at a lot of money."

Other councillors felt the city needs to be planning now in order to
get new members in place as soon as possible.

Noting it can take up to a year to get a new member once a
municipality makes the request, Flynn mentioned starting the
requisitioning process now, so that a new officer might be available
by the time of the 2008 budget.