'We are not small town Kelowna anymore': Top cop reflects on 2021

• Kelowna's top cop says city if safe
• Has hopes for progress on addictions issues
• Police officers endure another year of stress

Despite the ongoing challenges of violent drug crime, the seemingly endless battle to address addictions and homelessness, as well as pandemic-related issues, Kelowna is a safe place to live and call home.

So says Superintendent Kara Triance, as she reflects on the year that was, and on her first full year in the job as Kelowna’s top cop. She’s also hopeful of meaningful progress in some key areas next year as she presides over what is now the third biggest RCMP detachment in Canada.

“I really believe that Kelowna is a very safe place, and the public believes this is a great place to live, work and to be,” Triance told Kelowna10, pointing to what she describes as a robust annual community satisfaction survey that shows 87 per cent of people in the city feel it is safe.

But Triance, who was born and raised in Kelowna before pursuing her RCMP career across various B.C. communities, acknowledges the city has seen unprecedented growth in the last 25 years, as well as the few years preceding her return to lead the department in the fall of 2020. She runs a detachment that will add 11 new personnel next year, taking the total complement to 221.

More officers coming

“We are not small-town Kelowna anymore. There are a lot of things that we need to respond to and adapt to accordingly, as we evolve as a large metropolitan area,” she explained.

Triance arrived in the senior leadership role with stats showing a plus-20-percent spike in crime and very high opioid-related issues.

Half of the 11 new personnel will hit the streets while the other half are assigned to investigative services. Triance said they’re needed to help with ever more complex investigations and to free up more frontline officers to respond to calls for service.

While she said it’s unlikely every element in her initial three-year plan will be achieved, Triance said the detachment will put all its time and energy next year into the priorities around a sense of safety, safety in public spaces, and reducing property and violent crime.

"I want to make sure I move the dial on [those].”

Fixing the revolving door

One area where Triance is confident of showing progress in the new year is around crime as it relates to mental health and the opioid crisis. She has been vocal in her frustrations about the revolving door of arrest and release by the courts, and the challenges brought by the reduction in remand and incarceration capacity due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s very important as your police chief that we are adequately resourced, we’re taking responsibility … for having an officer turn up and show up when they’re really needed, and we’re engaging our partners in the community who can reduce those pressures and demands on policing.”

While short on specifics, Triance said she’s confident there will be breakthroughs in 2022 with ongoing collaborative and educational efforts with Interior Health, Attorney General and Ministry responsible for Housing, and other provincial agencies. It's all aimed at addressing the major drains on police resources because of addiction and homelessness.

‘If we really engage with the province and our justice partners and begin to close the loop on how we can divert these most complex social calls from the police service to the ministries that are equipped to handle [them], I really believe we will make some progress.”

She pointed to the Child Advocacy Centre in Kelowna that was showing success in dealing with the trauma associated with child abuse, something often at the root of mental health issues, addiction and homelessness.

The police service has a specialist Police and Crisis Team (PACT), featuring trained officers and a nurse to better respond to mental health calls, but Triance said Interior Health will not be expanding that.

Officers endure 'deep effects' of job

As she reflected on another year of pandemic stresses and traumatic crime - three murders, as well as the crane collapse tragedy and three-person fatal crash involving high school students - Triance said the detachment is well equipped to offer mental health supports to their personnel.

“We have a phenomenal health and wellness program with leaders who’ve changed the way we respond to mental health issues,” she said. “We had the first Critical Incident Stress Management team in the province, and … have just created a wellness position who focuses primarily on the wellness and health of our police agency.

Triance added while her team has kept showing a commitment and dedication to the job, it hasn’t been easy.

“To say that this year has not had significant effects would be a lie. We have had deep effects from attending a very serious amount of calls, [and] from the effects of the pandemic that have been wearing and worrisome on all of our staff.”