Vernon bylaw officers see 7 per cent uptick in complaints in 2022

Bylaw officers in Vernon were kept busy in 2022.

Bylaw officers investigated a total of 5,727 complaints last year, an increase of seven per cent over the previous year, according to a report to council by Darren Lees, manager of protective services.

Those numbers were driven by a 32 per cent increase in complaints regarding the street entrenched population, despite the fact that homeless people accounted for 30 per cent less crime in Vernon in 2022, according to the Vernon North Okanagan RCMP’s fourth quarter policing report released earlier this month.

Another primary contributing factor to the overall increase in complaints was a 21 per cent increase in complaints relating to parks and public spaces.

The report says the higher volume of complaints last year could be attributed to the proactive presence of bylaw compliance officers within the business improvement area and adjacent parks to reduce nuisance issues and behaviours. There were 728 calls for service in the business improvement area in 2022, a nearly 15 per cent increase over 2021.

Calls for service from the public saw a 7.5 per cent decrease.

According to the report, community safety office RCMP volunteers donated 1,806 hours in 2022, handling 654 phone calls and tending to 3,515 people who came into the office for crime prevention, community programs and education.

“Volunteers participated in a variety of events throughout the community including Go by Bike Week, the John Minguy Memorial RCMP Youth Academy, Seniors Fair and Children’s Festival Volunteers also registered bikes on Garage 529,” the report states.

Meanwhile, the anti tag team documented 2,456 cases of unwanted graffiti vandalism within the city last year. The team cleaned up more than 1,198 graffiti tags while another 566 were removed by property owners.

During 2022, the crime prevention RCMP volunteers provided 4,841 hours of service supporting regular and special operations. Regular operations include community safety vehicle night patrol, speed watch operations, cell watch operations, 9PM routine, marine vessel pre-safety check, invasive mussel operations and lock out auto crime operations.

“Protective Services continues to support council’s strategic priority of a ‘vibrant downtown’ by maintaining a continued daily proactive presence in the downtown core through uniformed bylaw compliance officers and crime prevention evening vehicle patrols to enhance public safety while providing education and resources to address a variety of safety and bylaw related concerns throughout the community,” concludes the report.