One of the key sections of Bill McKinnon's Public Safety Report to Kelowna City Council was enforcement. The Former RCMP Superintendant says the city is dramatically under policed. He says it's an on-going budget issue that he recommends be solved.
Current Kelowna RCMP Superintendant Brent Mundle says, "It's difficult. We have a limited number of officers and we deploy them as strategically as possible to the areas we see crime trends. We constantly monitor those trends to ensure we apply our resources in the correct areas". Mundle would welcome more officers. He would also welcome the return of an RCMP Auxillary Force.
Before it was disbanded, the Auxillary provided police and the city more than 11,000 hours of service per year. That was another recommendation in the McKinnon Report. A budget has apparently been approved but the final ok is hung up with the province. McKinnon says there's a dispute over what kind of uniforms an auxillary member would wear.
McKinnon says the city must lobby hard and now in order to have the auxillary in place by spring.