Since January Salmon Arm RCMP have seen a spike in calls for public use of drugs, and a rise in criminal activity in the area of 30th Street NE and Highway 1.
At its April 22 meeting, city council received a quarterly report, spanning Jan. 1 to March 31, from Staff Sgt. Scott West.
During the quarter, Salmon Arm RCMP received 1,948 calls for service, 1,515 of those from within the city. This was up by 261 more calls from the same quarter in 2023.
“So our call volume within the city does continue to go up,” said West.
Once again West included with his report a map pointing to crime hot spots in the city. He pointed out one spot in particular, in the area of the Trans-Canada Highway and 30th, where incidents have been on the rise.
“All of our members are paying attention to that and conducting increased patrols,” said West.
West said property crime remains “one of our most prolific crime types,” and that the most numerous property crimes are mischief (loss of enjoyment of property) and fraud. Another notable occurrence has been the increase in reports to police regarding drugs and alcohol. West said the detachment has seen an increase in calls for people who are openly using drugs and/or are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. According to statistics provided by West, these calls jumped from 101 in 2023 to 332 this year.
“We’ve got an issue that’s cropping up where we’re dealing with more people that are under the influence of an intoxicating substance,” said West. “Decriminalization no doubt had an impact on those numbers because more people are openly using or not hiding the use as much as they used to…”
West said officers continue to be focused on, and patrolling “known problem areas,” and are conducting morning patrols where possible through the downtown business community, “because we’ve heard back from them that there is a resurgence of some issues within that area despite council’s best efforts in approving Marshlands and Cedar Place and a number of other social housing situations.”
Asked if he knew of any changes coming from the B.C. government regarding legislation that allows for public possession up to 2.5 grams of specified illegal drugs, West said he’s aware of some discussions around proximity to particular locations, but noted the intent of the legislation “has been not to criminalize use.”
“I think the data makes a compelling case that there’s room for improvement and there are many agencies in the community that are working hard to serve some of the population that you referred to, vulnerable people who are suffering from drug and alcohol addictions,” said Coun. Louise Wallace Richmond, who urged West’s report be shared with those agencies. “I think there’s great value in sharing this with them because you cannot fix what you do not measure, and you’ve measured. I think there’s room there to help those agencies understand some of the challenges that are happening.”
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