By Jill Sperling

High-powered weapons, violence concerning for Kamloops RCMP superintendent

Mar 6, 2019 | 2:43 PM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops’ top cop says the local RCMP detachment has been under increased pressure as they deal with organized crime, the drug trade and resulting violence.

Superintendent Syd Lecky provided Kamloops city council with a year-end report for 2018 Tuesday, citing a number of major police investigations that have required numerous resources and overtime hours.

So far, this year hasn’t brought much relief to the local police force, with an unprecedented number of shootings and high-risk police incidents in a short amount of time.

Lecky says the detachment is prioritizing the health and wellness of officers as they continue to attend violent and traumatic incidents.

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“We do have the ability to reach out and have critical incident debriefs that are done by a skilled professional where we’ll try and debrief on those that are… directly involved and sometimes some on the periphery.” 

In addition to the significant number of incidents relating to the drug trade and organized crime, RCMP are also concerned about the nature of weapons in the possession of criminals. 

“Carbines are kind of the weapons that are often seen in military, I wouldn’t say we’re walking around with M16s, but we’ve got carbines and they’re pretty high-powered rifles and can be automatic or semi-automatic. We’ve seized a number of those in the past year and certainly even this year we’ve seized a few. And guns with silencers on them. There is no reason to have a silencer on a gun unless its intended purpose is to shoot people without getting heard.” 

Lecky says his biggest priority is keeping the city and his staff safe.

“I have names of fallen police officers in front of our detachment. That’s a big responsibility for a police officer, for a detachment commander when you have to think about that and the people that we serve and the members that work for us. So, it’s a pretty tough thing. It’s a big weight to bear, and that’s why I’m concerned about our staff.”