Kelowna city council close to unveiling three crime-fighting initiatives – Okanagan
Kelowna Mayor Tom Diaz said he ran for office on a promise to reduce crime and plans to do so.
“Crime was a major election issue. Kelowna was statistically number one for crime,” Dyas told Global News.
The mayor made the comments Monday afternoon, just before hearing the RCMP submit its 2022 crime report to the city council.
Diaz said the council is very close to announcing three crime-fighting initiatives, “all the actionable items that make a difference.”
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Dyas wasn’t ready to share what these three initiatives are, but said they will be published within the next month.
“The only reason why that’s the case is… we have another meeting tomorrow to make sure these are still the top three priorities to address,” Dyas said. I would like to make sure that everyone on the council agrees that these are our priorities, and that they become official documents.
The 2022 Crime Report was submitted to the Council by the Kelowna RCMP Institute. Beth McCundy. She noted that crime in general returned to pre-pandemic levels last year.
Overall service calls decreased by 6%, while service calls increased by 12.6% in the downtown Kelowna area.
Robberies and burglaries increased from the 2021 baseline.
Robberies in 2022 increased 43% year-over-year, and burglaries increased 26%.
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At the Oh baby Consignment store on Ellis Street, the owner wasn’t surprised by the increase in numbers.
“Not at all,” said Carrie Falgren, the store’s co-owner. “It’s been a year and a half since we opened, and it’s been split into two.”
“It was the first time they broke the front window, so we had to replace the front window and door. “
Fahlgren said the bar had to be installed to prevent another break-in.
“There’s no answer. I hope there’s something in place to try to improve this,” Falgren said.
Crime Reports also said that in response to an increase in the number of intrusions, the RCMP began cracking down on high-priority repeat offenders last August, and crimes of this type have declined since then. I’m here.
“We are pleased to share that we have adopted additional data analyst resources and a sophisticated data-driven strategy in the fourth quarter of 2022,” McAndie told City Council. “As we carry over to January 2023, we are seeing some great indicators from our response.
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