Downtown Kamloops and the Tranquille Corridor will be adding temporary security starting on Friday (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

INCREASED SECURITY

Business improvement associations applaud security for downtown, Tranquille

Mar 31, 2021 | 4:37 PM

KAMLOOPS — Every morning, downtown business owners are welcomed by garbage piled up in back alleys and more piles of junk at their front doors.

“Every single day, we’re experiencing challenges throughout the downtown core with certain populations that are intent on causing us problems,” said executive director of the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association Carl DeSantis. “Whether it’s just simple things like litter and debris, whether it’s criminal behaviours, property damage, graffiti. It’s disrupting our businesses.”

It’s led the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association to lobby the city for security downtown. Council listened and approved the hiring of temporary security both downtown and along Tranquille.

“Security for downtown businesses overnight was inadequate in my opinion,” said Councillor Bill Sarai. “We thought until the CSOs (new Community Safety Officers) are running, the downtown core and the Tranquille corridor was really getting hammered with vandalism and some really threatening behavior.”

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Starting as soon as this Friday (Apr. 2), there will be security seven days a week from 10:00 p.m. until 8:00 a.m. The cost of the security — $75,000 — will come from COVID-19 B.C. Safe Restart funds.

“We really do appreciate that,” said DeSantis. “There’s not one solution that is going to solve all of our challenges. This is one piece of many solutions we hope will be introduced that will really turn things around.”

The North Shore Business Improvement Association says it’s a good first step. Security, it says, is needed to curb nuisance behaviours, but more city-driven outreach work needs to be done in the future.

“The street population’s broken down into some very complex pieces. There is a component of that street population, which engage in nuisance behaviours consciously or willingly, so our goal will be to ensure those people are held to account for their actions because they’re willful,” said NSBIA Executive Director Jeremy Heighton.

“For those who don’t have that ability to make willful decisions in their daily lives, the goal is to get those folks into care, to get those folks supported in a way that allows them to heal and also allows our community to feel we’ve got a good handle on the situation.”

The temporary security will last until September 2021 when the city’s community services officers (CSO) take over.