File photo. (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Aaron Schulze

Protective Services Corridor 2025

Kamloops CSOs report spike in response calls but workload being more ‘evenly spread’

Jan 27, 2026 | 11:10 AM

KAMLOOPS — New data from the City of Kamloops shows an increase in the total number of police, fire and Community Service Officer (CSO) calls in high-issue corridors in the city. 

According to the Protective Services Corridor 2025 statistics presented to Kamloops council’s Safety and Security Select Committee on Monday (Jan. 26), CSOs responded to 5,389 calls across the seven corridors last year. Of those, 1,726 were proactive files. 

“On Victoria Street itself, we saw close to 200 more related proactive files,” said Will Beatty, the city’s community services manager. “As we go to the Tranquille corridors, we’re seeing a substantial increase in calls for service but with that comes the ability of the CSOs — who have been (staffed) 24 hours (per day) now — quite some time to be proactive in areas of nuisance and general nuisance.”

(Image Credit: City of Kamloops)

Beatty adds the move to 24-hour CSO coverage has also eased pressures on officers who are also able to follow up on calls a lot sooner than before. 

Question of the Week

Has the violence in Mexico changed your opinion about travelling there for a vacation?

11h ago

Looped In

LOOPED IN WITH NIKKI OMEN: February 23, 2026

16h ago

1000 WAYS TO HEAL

1000 WAYS TO HEAL: Understanding the Bully

16h ago

“From an operational perspective, when you do carry those files and you have those files, you know 50 or 60 files into your next night shift, it’s taxing,” Beatty says. “You feel like you’re not doing your job — you’re not making an impact. But we’re seeing that with more officers, it’s being spread out more evenly and the follow ups are happening are a lot quicker, as well.” 

Calls to CSOs are up significantly from the 3,651 recorded in 2024. Of those, 1,067 were proactive. 

Meantime, Kamloops Fire Rescue (KFR) reported a similar number of response calls taking them to the seven corridors. Statistics show KFR responded to 1,549 calls in 2025, up marginally from 1,507 in 2024. 

Ken Uzeloc, the city’s protective services director, noted a slight decrease in medical response calls year-over-year. He attributes that to a renewed agreement with BC Ambulance in which KFR responds to critical, urgent and potentially life-threatening calls. 

(Image Credit: City of Kamloops)

Responding to a question from committee chair Katie Neustaeter, Uzeloc says he doesn’t see other opportunities to reduce the number of medical calls KFR responds to. 

“We do monitor that to make sure, through BC [Emergency Health Services]… they’re not adjusting their triage model when things start to become difficult for them to change the severity,” Uzeloc says. “We also have been very successful with the non-emergency calls for lift assists, making it very clear that we will only go to those types of calls if specialized rescue or extrication is required.” 

Meantime, Kamloops RCMP reported a slight increase in police calls year-over-year. A total of 1,560 were reported from the seven corridors in 2025, up from 1,528 in 2024. 

Supt. Jeff Pelley notes there was a substantial drop in non-Criminal-Code-related calls. Of the total police calls in 2025, 810 were non-criminal, down from 907 in 2024.

(Image Credit: City of Kamloops)

(Image Credit: City of Kamloops)

“If a person is refusing to leave, we are classifying that as mischief, disturbed the lawful enjoyment,” Pelley says. “It is a criminal act. We may not be charging for that offence, so that’s where you’re going to see elevated criminal charges.

“But if they’ve committed a criminal act, whether it’s something we pursue charges or not, or operational discretion, we will score that accordingly. It’s not to skew our stats, but that’s what the response was and that’s what the need is when we provide that service.” 

Data collected by the city comes from a few specific corridors, including two sections of Tranquille Road, a portion of Valleyview, Victoria Street and Victoria Street West, Columbia Street West and a segment of Notre Dame Drive.