Do you often get upset over what you read on social media? Do your online comments and concerns go unanswered? Do you demand justice from our community figures?

Well fear no more, keyboard warriors. The Penticton Western News is taking Penticton’s leaders to task – you have (harsh) feedback and we get it heard in our new series Penticton Reads Mean Comments.

Penticton RCMP Superintendent Ted De Jager is constantly the target of online criticism from Penticton residents. Whether the topic is property crime, RCMP numbers, traffic tickets or drug trafficking De Jager can not seem to catch a break from his constituents, who all seem to have varying solutions to these problems.

“It’s important to get back to people and to find out what people are looking at and what their concerns are. I think one of the issues with social media that we find frustrating as police is that we can’t react to it directly,” said De Jager. “So it’s more important for us to be able to talk to people in person.”

De Jager said if people want to provide feedback to the Penticton RCMP, the best way is by emailing the general inquries line at penticton.general.inquiries@rcmp-grc.gc.ca. He said he does see the comments made about him on social media, but said he has a thick skin.

“It’s fine to have these tweets and Facebook comments, I don’t take it personally. In fact, I would encourage people to be saying more if it can guide us in the right direction,” said De Jager. “But if you have something you want to say to us, by all means you can come to the detachment, you can use the general inquiries line, or come to our coffee with a cop or our community forum at the end of April.”

What community figure would you like featured next in our ongoing series Penticton Reads Mean Comments? Email us your ideas at newstips@pentictonwesternnews.com.

To report a typo, email: editor@pentictonwesternnews.com.