Overall criminal offences up 9 per cent in Kamloops: RCMP year end report

However, the report says that not all reports are found to be actual Criminal Code Offences.

In 2021, there were a total of 13,942 actual offences reported to Kamloops RCMP. That is an increase of 9 per cent from 2020 and 11 per cent from 2019.

Actual offences reported to Kamloops RCMP (Photo credit: Kamloops RCMP).

The report goes into detail on various units and provides statistics.

Serious crime unit

The report details the Serious Crime Unit (SCU) and the new investigations they assumed conduct of. They call Q4 “busy but successful” as they dealt with a homicide and a missing person investigation with foul play suspected.

On October 1, 2021, Adam Hibbert was found dead near the entrance to the city landfill. According to the report the investigation continues as they wait for lab results on a number of pieces of evidence.

One month later, on November 1, 2021, Shannon White was reported missing after she didn’t show up to work. The SCU has conducted an extensive investigation and believe foul play was involved in her disappearance. The investigation is ongoing.

The report says that this year a dedicated sex crimes investigator was added to the General Investigation Support Team (GIST) to help frontline officers with “these high risk and sometimes complicated investigations”. They are in the process of staffing two more investigators dedicated to sex crimes as well as a senior NCO supervisor to oversee Sex Crimes and GIST.

In 2021, three SCU cases went through the court process and ended in convictions.

Three men pled guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to jail in the murder of Troy Gold that occurred in October 2018. The report says a fourth is accused to plead guilty in early 2022.

On March 18, 2021, two men charged in a 2019 drug trade killing in Brocklehurst were both found guilty.

On December 3, 2021, Reid McKnight pled guilty to charges relating to a triple fatal car crash that occurred in 2019 where three former international students from TRU were killed.

Intimate partner violence

Reports of intimate partner violence (IPV) were down 28 per cent compared to 2020 and 13 per cent compared to 2019.

An IPV coordinator has reviewed 692 of the 1096 total reported IPV files from 2021. Const. Meikle started in the IPV coordinator position at the beginning of Q4. The report says Meikle has found that charges are being recommended to Crown Counsel when appropriate.

Missing persons

There were a total of 824 missing persons in 2021. That’s an increase of 18 per cent from 2020, but a decrease of 8 per cent from 2019.

(Photo credit: Kamloops RCMP).

The report said a youth who moved into a care home in Kamloops from another community in January 2021 generated a total of 52 missing persons files in Q4 alone.

Mental health

In 2021, there was a slight reduction in mental health related calls from 2020’s high. However, there was a 13 per cent increase over 2019’s numbers.

Car 40 is the program in which a mental health nurse and a police officer are dispatched to calls that are more mental health related than criminal.

In 2021, the Car 40 team was able to make interventions in nearly 1 in 4 calls they attended. They assisted with in-person assessments and referrals to services.

The entire report can be found on page 50 of Tuesday’s (March 29) council meeting.

by Stephanie Swensrude

Overall criminal offences up 9 per cent in Kamloops: RCMP year end report

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