The North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP detachment has had to move some members around to compensate for vacancies and injuries in recent months, Insp. Ray Carfantan told Duncan City Council when he delivered his quarterly report last Monday.
“I have had to collapse a couple of plainclothes resources and bring them back to uniform,” the detachment’s commanding officer related. “Just in terms of managing major crimes, it’s a risk-management model to keep enough people on the front lines.”
While some positions at the detachment remain empty and other members are sidelined with work-related injuries, calls for service have increased. Calls were up by more than 1,000 from 2014 to 2015, and nearly 2,000 from 2012 to 2015, Carfantan noted.
“Despite the decrease you see in crime stats, specific crimes or criminal offences being reported, the actual calls to the police office continue to be on the rise and have been on the rise since 2012,” he said. “We deal with a lot of things outside of criminal responses, things like mental health issues, abandoned alarm calls, those sorts of things.”
Traffic incidents, thefts, disturbances and calls to assist fire or medical responders were the most common calls over the last quarter of 2015, a trend unchanged from the same time period in 2014. Just over half — 52 per cent — of all calls the detachment responded to were in North Cowichan. Another 17 per cent came from Duncan, 14 per cent from Cowichan Tribes areas, and 11 per cent from electoral areas. The remainder, six per cent, resulted from people coming to the RCMP office.
The Prolific Offender Management program remains a high priority for the North Cowichan/Duncan detachment, as dictated by the provincial authority. According to Carfantan, the program continues to be beneficial in terms of rehabilitation and incarceration.
“As anticipated, the participants in the program remain fluid, as they either enter treatment or incarceration over time,” he wrote in his report to council. “This year’s focus is on curfew checks for known offenders, broadening our base of communication with offenders. We will be in contact with more offenders, opening lines of communication and re-enforcing the need for individuals to comply with court ordered conditions.”
There are currently eight designated prolific offenders: three are in custody, three are in the community and being supervised and monitored, and the other two are wanted on new charges with outstanding warrants. A total of 32 people in the area served by the North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP are subject to curfew conditions.
