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Congratulations Vernon

Congratulations Vernon, now we have the statistics to prove it. We are the ninth most dangerous city in Canada. Only one out of the top 20 cities has their own police force.
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Congratulations Vernon, now we have the statistics to prove it. We are the ninth most dangerous city in Canada. Only one out of the top 20 cities has their own police force.

How many people still believe that paying another $1,000,000 to add six more officers to the 50+ we already have to our local police force will make things better?

If you do, I am sure you also agree that paying ICBC millions more dollars will give us better insurance.

Maybe now it is time to support a contingent of local Mayors and Band Chiefs to visit places similar in size and diversity to the Okanagan Valley and see how they manage their own police forces.

There are many local police forces that have been very effective in other areas and are not tied to decisions made by the Federal Government.

We have the Justice Institute in Vancouver for training. We have a lot of very competent police already working in this province who would love to move to the Okanagan. We also get to regulate who comes to work for our city. Performance based employment, just like the rest of us.

We could bring in overseas talent with immigration, and we have some of the best trained police in the world from our own retired military police. Why then should we continue to pay for federal employee’s who move every four years or move here to retire?

It makes complete sense to me to have a local police force that is paid locally, works for the local community and decisions are made on how they conduct their services locally.

Paul Elmont

Vernon