An RCMP officer catalogues guns seized in Westsyde, November 2023. (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Doug Collins

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: How safe do we feel?

Apr 7, 2024 | 6:00 AM

IF WE PUT ASIDE ALL OF THE HYPE at city council over the McCorkell saga and the mayor’s diatribe about the need for “change,” let’s look at the real issue here — how safe do we really feel we are versus statistics that try to show the real picture?

How safe we feel we are is more important than the statistics. If we don’t feel safe, all the contrary statistics in the world mean nothing.

The mayor is obviously not a believer in the statistics. He clearly feels we aren’t moving quickly enough to reduce crime. Hence his conspiracy theory that it’s all McCorkell’s fault. He wanted to show a bunch of pictures at a recent Chamber of Commerce meeting showing how badly things were on the downtown streets.

Although a recent community satisfaction survey last year indicated a majority of us felt safe, in some ways, I think the mayor has a point. Drive-by shootings, downtown businesses being burglarized, people feeling unsafe walking in business districts at night, increased use of drugs in public places because of provincial government plans that are ill-advised and do little good. The increased rash of arson fires downtown. How can this possibly make us feel safe?

The Safety and Security Select Committee had its last meeting in January. All the minutes showed that nothing happened except to receive a bunch of generally “feel good” reports that the Armchair Mayor and I could churn out in about five minutes. They showed some statistics indicating some categories of crime being reduced, indicating we have an “everything’s coming up roses” kind of city. That committee doesn’t meet again until the 16th of the month. That makes these meetings virtually useless.

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We need to ask RCMP Superintendent Jeff Pelley some hard questions about the state of security in Kamloops, what strategies we need to undertake to deal with problems and what resources it will take to make Kamloops safer. The increase in gang- and drug-related violence needs to be addressed.

We need to press Fire Chief Ken Uzeloc on our fire protection. Are there ways police and fire could do things differently in dealing with this outbreak of arsons?

These are the questions that need to be addressed. Not in some accusatory way like the mayor has done with Mr. McCorkell, but a really good chin wag where no idea is a bad one, where we throw everything onto the table and try to find something that works. But that will only happen when we have a leader who can make it so. We don’t have that right now.

I’m Doug Collins and that’s One Man’s Opinion.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.