Black Press
Local frontline workers are issuing a call to action in light of a report that ranks Kelowna third nationwide for incidents of domestic violence.
The Statistics Canada report released Tuesday shows Kelowna had 346 police-reported victims per 100,000 people in 2010, which places the city behind Saint John, N.B. and Saskatoon, Sask., respectively. It ranks first in B.C., followed closely by Abbotsford.
“We have a community that needs to improve its response to family violence,” said Amy Thompson, co-ordinator of the Elizabeth Fry Society. “There are a lot of women living in intolerable, unsafe conditions, and so are their children. These statistics show the women who are coming forward to seek support and safety from the criminal justice system, but it doesn’t reflect what’s unreported.”
Moving forward, Thompson said she’d like to see these stats used as fuel for funding resources that victims of abuse can access.
“What would help would be having more specialized domestic violence workers,” she said.
The RCMP has employed one domestic violence officer since 2009. Their aim is to provide guidance to general duty investigators on appropriate structure, mandate and file criteria for the Kelowna, Lake Country and West Kelowna detachments. From there, 100 general duty officers are tasked with investigating cases of domestic violence on an ongoing basis.
