Kelowna city council will learn next week how many police officers the consultant the city hired to investigate proper RCMP strength here thinks the local detachment should have.
Council was told Monday that Robert Prosser’s report is scheduled to be presented at the Jan. 30 afternoon council meeting.
The report, which will follow on the heels of council’s approval of four more officers and a crime analyst in the 2012 budget, is expected to confirm the local RCMP commander’s contention that the city detachment is understaffed for the amount of work it has to do.
According to a Statistics Canada report released last month, Kelowna is the most under-policed metropolitan area in the country, with the lowest number of officers per 100,000 population.
RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon, who appeared before council last week during the budget deliberations, successfully made his case for the additional four officers and the civilian crime analyst.
“To be honest, we need the help,” he told council.
McKinnon said the new officers will be supervisors, likely corporals, as Kelowna already has a very young police force, with most recent arrivals recent graduates of the RCMP training academy. But he cautioned, it takes time for new officers to get here after they are requested and the new ones won’t be here until at least October.
Following the budget meeting, McKinnon, who has worked closely with Prosser as the latter put together his report, refused to give any indication of what the report will recommend.
The Kelowna detachment currently has 148 officers authorized by the city.
The total cost of each new officer, when all costs are accounted for, is just over $138,000, according to the city.
In December, city corporate sustainability general manager Paul Macklem said he expects council will direct staff to come back with recommendations based on Prosser’s findings.
