Image Credit: CFJC Today file image

By Dylana Kneeshaw

COMMUNITY SAFETY

Downtown Kamloops, North Shore benefitting from CAP team service share

Oct 13, 2023 | 4:25 PM

KAMLOOPS — The familiar red uniforms seen on downtown CAP team members are back on the city’s North Shore.

Recently, the business improvement associations for the downtown and North Shore came to an agreement to share services.

North Shore Business Improvement Association Executive Director Jeremy Heighton says the collaboration has been working well.

“We have two (CAP team members) for each side year-round, and then there will be, of course, summer hires as there usually are,” he explains. “Downtown, it is a little bit more of a tourism focus and North Shore is a little more of a social focus. Our goal is to try to find a way to manage both sets of issues but yet do it in a way that’s friendly and reasonable for our community.”

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Heighton says the CAP team has helped businesses, residents and visitors to the North Shore and downtown areas feel more connected and safe.

The program has evolved and is now viewed as a potential stepping stone into community services (bylaw), policing and other careers.

“There is a little bit more of a focus than there has been in the past on community safety, crime prevention, vehicle lock-up programs, all those kinds of programs that the RCMP typically deliver, we can also do with the CAP team as well,” adds Heighton.

In exchange for the CAP team deployment, the North Shore Business Improvement Association provides a Clean Team for both areas of the city. The Clean Team targets littering, disposing of sharps or other harm reduction materials and graffiti removal.