Questions arose at a recent RDN Board meeting on the allocation of resources from Oceanside RCMP, with the municipal areas subsidizing policing for more rural regions. (File Photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Alex Rawnsley

police payment

Cost split for Oceanside RCMP officers not reflecting bump in call volumes

Dec 10, 2021 | 5:26 AM

PARKSVILLE — An increase in calls and operational challenges continue to stretch available resources for Oceanside RCMP.

Sgt. Stephen Rose made a quarterly presentation of detachment operations to the RDN Board during their meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 7. He highlighted a five per cent rise in call volumes through the first nine months of the year, compared to 2020.

Rose said of particular challenge is the volume of mental health calls officers are attending, which often tie up considerable resources.

“We don’t have a designated facility where we can bring someone suffering from a mental health crisis to a medical practitioner, we have to bring them into Nanaimo to the hospital.

Transferring a person to Nanaimo for evaluation removes an officer from the Oceanside detachment for anywhere between one and three hours, according to Rose.

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It stretches an already thinly staffed detachment, even thinner.

Oceanside RCMP is home to 38 officers including 20 general duty Constables. Just three officers handle municipal traffic offences with others dedicated to youth affairs, domestic violence and missing persons.

It was the breakdown on who pays for the officers which has drawn some extra attention from Rose, as well as questions from Board members.

Rose noted of the detachment’s 38 officers, 25 are funded by the City of Parksville (17) and Town of Qualicum (8). The remaining 13 are provincially funded.

The split, of roughly two thirds of the officers being municipally funded, isn’t reflected in crime stats. Roughly half of all calls for service stem from outside Parksville or Qualicum Beach.

Highway calls particularly tip the scale towards provincial responsibility with a vast majority occurring outside Town or City limits.

“The City of Parksville and Town of Qualicum Beach are subsidizing the electoral areas for their policing,” Ed Mayne, Parksville mayor, told the Board. “That’s not them specifically but more for the province and we end up on short on compliment because of it.”

Rose said he had campaigned to add three additional, provincially funded officers to the detachment.

The bid didn’t pass the RCMP’s internal process and his request was denied.

A limited number of officers also leaves the vast detachment shorthanded during late night shifts.

Mayne said in situations where only a handful of cars are on, multiple calls can cause significant operational challenges.

“If they get a call in Errington, two cruisers go out there to address the call and then there’s an accident in Bowser, that leaves one cruiser to handle everything from Bowser to Nanoose Bay.”

Rose has since left the detachment to take an Inspector’s position on the south Island. He’s replaced as the officer in charge of the Oceanside RCMP by Sgt. Shane Worth.

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alex@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @alexrawnsley