Editor:
In response to Michael A. Jones letter to the editor regarding crime in Williams Lake.
I’m sure that former councillors Ed Mead, Judy O’Neill, Jon Wolbers and Paul French, and current and then councillors Surinderpal Rathor and Tom Barr would take issue with you discrediting them and their hard work on crime which the current council inherited.
There is no question that the council you scorn actually laid the groundwork for the decrease in crime that you see today.
In other words, give credit where credit is due.
And then there was the small matter of who was at the helm … you guessed it, Scott Nelson.
Mead led the charge and, under his portfolio, the RCMP began the implementation of the Crime Target Team, hiring of a safer communities coordinator, lobbied for the Prolific Offender program, created a full time municipal drug investigator position, began crime mapping and many more tools which were used to help bring the crime statistics down (these initiatives are noted in the City’s 2007 Corporate Business Plan and Five-year Financial Plan).
And lowering crime stats does not happen overnight. It can take years.
Hurray that the current council continued to carry the torch, but please give credit where credit is due.
Under Mayor Nelson’s leadership and with the hard work and dedication of the council of the day, particularly Mead, the groundwork was laid.
And hopefully it will continue.
Brice O’Neill
Williams Lake
