First off: we hear you’re sticking around?
I requested an extension back in April, and that was granted! So now my tenure here goes until the end of October 2025. It’s a limited duration post, as we all know, and there are policies surrounding that. So in my four-year post, I can say for sure now I have a fifth year. And that’s a good thing, I think. I’ve heard time and again the community wants some stability; if the community doesn’t feel it’s getting from me what it needs, that might be time for a fresh outlook and a new commander. But I think as long as we’re continuing to be productive, where I’m contributing, I feel like it’s worth staying. My family’s well established in the community, my wife volunteers for different things, we have really good friends we’ve made here. Headquarters knows all that; no one wants to change something if it’s working.
What’s working particularly well?
The number one thing? The community engagement. There’s such a thirst for us to engage with the community, and we’re trying to participate in as many different things as we can. I’d heard in previous years, the community felt like they didn’t see enough of us –– certainly if they needed us, they could call and we’d come, but proactively being involved in things, intersecting with things at a lower level before they become bigger issues, I’d heard we could do better in that regard.
Have you struggled with staff this year?
I’m really appreciative of our staffing office, they’ve done a good job of working with me to keep the office more or less fully staffed. Of course we have had gaps, but in previous years those gaps were for months, or even a year or more in some cases. Now we find our gaps are more manageable, say being down one member for a few weeks before a replacement gets here. In fact one of the officers that transferred out this year, his replacement was here before that officer even left! So we were actually at surplus for a few weeks. That sort of stability for the detachment definitely helps me do my job, and it’s good for my members’ wellness too.
Are you seeing any trends?
Well, you have to be careful with statistics. But five years ago our calls for service were in the 3,400 range per year, and last year they were just over 2,700. So being able to take several hundred calls out of a calendar year is definitely a decrease. People are calling us less, which is nice. In Ganges specifically, the kinds of calls I was seeing back then –– smearing of feces on walls, that sort of thing –– I mean, I don’t want to paint a picture that it’s all roses now. But you don’t see those types of examples anymore. We still have challenges for sure, but those assaults, vandalism, breaking and entering, property crime –– we rarely get those types of calls now.
Does that include Centennial Park?
The number of calls we get to Centennial Park for general vagrancy, that hasn’t really dropped, but it’s about the severity. The reality is, Salt Springers are still calling the police for the things they’re seeing in the park; but now sometimes we’ll get calls someone is drinking alcohol, and we’ll get down there and it’s coffee. Not always, but more often. It’s clear that the community’s view of that area is in a lot of ways unchanged, so for the rest of the summer especially we will have an increased enforcement presence down there, to ensure that people don’t take our leniency for granted –– and understand there are lines in the sand where everybody is expected to be able to enjoy the park equally.
How much does how you do that enforcement help?
I find with social issues, I haven’t really seen a lot of success with the public solely relying on the police to “arrest the problem away.” As long as public safety isn’t thrown out the window, I think we should be willing to support attempts to avoid that. That’s why to me things like the Ambassador Program that we started is so important –– to have people in the community doing that outreach, just day-in-the-life stuff like filling out forms to rent a place or access health care, or just listening to someone’s problems. From a police point of view, those volunteers will be there year after year to provide some continuity; then as our members come and go, we have this group working with the community to help make introductions. I think it’s a win-win.
How are the island drivers this year?
Salt Spring Island still has an impaired driving problem. Unfortunately, it still seems to be relatively easy to find an impaired driver. Right now I don’t think we go a week between stopping them. We stepped up our enforcement on impaired driving last year, and easily doubled the number of impaired drivers we took off the road. I’m sad to say –– and I’m proud of the officer –– but at the same time sad to say there’s one who’s getting the Team Alexa Award for personally having more than 50. Just the one officer.
How do you tackle that problem?
This year we’re continuing that enforcement, but also spending more time trying to stop it from happening in the first place. That will be visible as more bar walks, for example, and we have educational materials we’re handing out. Even if patrons don’t take them, they’ll still see it up on the wall and hopefully that can jog their memory a bit about their plans to get home safely. We’re working with ICBC and Island Health this fall, and hope to implement a program at the high school again where we speak with students about the dangers and consequences. I’d rather people not become aware about the consequences because they’ve been caught by police, or worse because someone has been hurt or killed. The best thing for everyone to do is, of course, to avoid drinking and driving in the first place.
How about mental health resources?
There’s still more work to do there, but I think we have a good grasp of the situation now. There were a couple of examples earlier this year where people were in and out of psychiatric help for a period of time, and that shone a light on how Salt Spring maybe needed a little more support. And to the credit of the people at Island Health, and Lady Minto staff especially, there were more conversations around what else we could do, what does the Mental Health Act provide, what are our strengths and limitations? We’re seeing more examples where a more meaningful long-term support that doesn’t necessarily involve the police is provided to a person, which is ultimately what they need.
So it’s less often a police matter?
We’re still generally involved –– in a lot of these circumstances, people are apprehended under the Mental Health Act, we’re still coming to the hospital –– but wherever we have the luxury of time to have a conversation, then we can build a solution together, get them connected with family or remind them who their doctor is, or that we do have a mental health team here where if it’s a client we can contact them. Police, ambulance, fire, the search and rescue team, all the first responders, all these well-established agencies –– it’s such a wide gamut — between a bunch of us if someone needs help we can get to the right person. Someone has the right phone number, someone knows just the right person. It’s that web of professionals and volunteers that really makes Salt Spring work. We all have official policies and ways to do things, but it’s those relationships with each other that solve the most problems.