The Squamish RCMP detachment could do with two more officers, says the Sea to Sky regional detachment head, a figure that would put the department at its 2009 head count.
The District of Squamish budgets for 23 officers in the community, yet last year the department averaged 20.2 full-time employees, Neil Cross told council at its Committee of the Whole meeting on March 26. At a few points last summer, the officer count dropped to 18. Cross is hoping to turn that around.
Ideally we would like to be back to 25 [officers], he said, noting that's was the number of employees the detachments housed in 2009-'10.
The low head count has resulted in local police carrying larger case loads than the provincial average. A Squamish officer averages 78 cases, while across B.C. the average is 64 cases per member.
That said, Cross acknowledged that the $3.9 million spent on policing makes up the lion's share of the municipality's 2013 expenses. Of that sum, the largest chunk is officers' pay. Salaries alone increased by 4.4 per cent this year. A rookie officer starts at $48,000 a year, jumping to $70,000 after three years of service.
Last year, officers were busy tackling a spree of thefts from vehicles. Squamish experienced an approximate 53 per cent jump in such incidents. In 2012, 259 vehicles were broken into and items stolen, 90 more than the year before. There were four main hot spots for this activity the Shannon Falls parking lot, Stawamus Chief parking lot, around Hunter Place and Discovery Way.
Drinking and driving numbers went up by roughly 27 per cent. In 2011, police caught 214 impaired drivers. That number jumped to 272 last year.
Out of violent crime in Squamish, assaults topped the list. Last year, the number of call-ins decreased 9.2 per cent compared to 2011, from 174 reported assaults to 158.
Overall, Squamish RCMP responded to 8,237 calls for services in 2012. That's consistent with 2011, with 8,206 call-outs. When compared to the 9,552 calls for services calculated over a five-year average, both figures are a decrease from previous years.
