Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Serving the Hub of the North since 1960
Volume 56 • Issue 3
RCMP trying to prevent crimes, but call volumes make violent offences a priority BY IAN GRAHAM EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
HOLISTIC NUTRITION ON THE MENU NEWS - PAGE 2
PEEWEE AA KING MINERS WIN TITLE SPORTS - PAGE 6
WILD FORWARD NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK SPORTS - PAGE 6
Prevention is a big component of what the Thompson RCMP does to try to avoid bigger problems down the line, detachment commander Insp. Kevin Lewis told the Thompson Chamber of Commerce at their Jan. 11 meeting. Whether it’s ensuring that youth in care are returning to their residences as scheduled, getting people in need of counselling and addictions services into the justice system so the courts can order such treatment, or the offender management program that targets people the police believe are at a high-risk to reoffend, Lewis says the job is about much more than simply waiting for crime to occur and then figuring out who did it. That said, he also admits that, given the high incidence of crimes against people that occur in Thompson, there are certain criminal activities that the RCMP have trouble curbing because they can’t be everywhere. Promoted to inspector and detachment commander last April, Lewis – who spent the previous two years as a staff sergeant in charge of city detachment operations – oversees a force of 38 city detachment members and 10 with the rural detachment, which provides policing services to communities including Pikwitonei, Thicket Portage, Brochet, Lac Brochet, Tadoule Lake and Split Lake as well as the Paint Lake area and regional highways. Many of the officers who serve under him are in the very early stages of their RCMP careers. “We are somewhat of
a training ground for the RCMP in terms of having new members,” Lewis told chamber members. “We had 11 new members come from our RCMP training academy in 2016. We’ve probably seen the same thing in 2015. We have a lot of new members. Probably half our detachment has less than two years’ service, which is great because it brings new life in and you get people coming in to see places they’ve never seen before, who get to experience the north but at the same time it’s a learning curve. Thompson is a four-year post so by the time that they get all the skills that they need they’ll be on their way to somewhere else but nonetheless we love to have them because it’s a great place to train.” The factors that make it a great place to train are probably among the things that police and civilian residents of Thompson would like to see changed - a high volume of calls and criminal complaints to deal with. In 2016, Lewis said, the Thompson detachment dealt with 4,450 public disorder offences like public intoxication, 1,773 missing persons, 1,040 assault complaints, 468 thefts, 340 liquor offences, 150 drug complaints, 69 break-and-enters, 46 sexual assault complaints and three homicides, one of which related to the discovery last April of the body of Nicholas Brophy, who had been missing since September 2015. The vast majority of the missing persons cases, Lewis said, involved youth under the care of Child and Family Services (CFS) who are absent without leave from the group homes where they live. On the roads, Thompson RCMP
Thompson Citizen photo by Ian Graham Thompson RCMP detachment commander Insp. Kevin Lewis speaks to Thompson Chamber of Commerce members at their Jan. 11 meeting. charged 105 people with impaired driving last year and handed out 446 traffic tickets, though he emphasized that, contrary to popular perception, they don’t have a ticket quota that they need to meet. Preventive programs and partnerships that police participated in 2016 included Project Northern Doorway, Project Home Deliver, a downtown program called Project Detox and the offender management program. Project Northern Doorway is a collaborative effort with the homeless shelter and the Canadian Mental Health Association, among others, that aimed to provide housing and social supports for homeless people who had a significant number of interactions with police, health services and social service agencies and, by doing so, get them off the streets and ensure that they w o u l d
not be a drain on those resources. “If you’re interacting with the police usually it’s a negative interaction,” Lewis said. “People that were high [in terms of interactions] in 2014, 2013, 2012 were now off the radar completely with the RCMP or had reduced the amount of interaction with the RCMP. We attribute it to being part of the Project Northern Doorway or some of the other social programs out there because what’s the other explanation for this person, this group of people all of a sudden falling off the radar?” Project Home Deliver, a partnership with Street Reach North, was intended to identify where high-risk youth in care who make up most of the missing persons reports in Thompson go when they aren’t at their group homes. It also pro-
vided an opportunity for police to give warnings to those who are harbouring youth in care in their homes unknowingly or without being aware of the potential consequences. “We can put a harbour notice to that individual that is the owner of the house saying you can’t have these people here, this is your onetime warning that you’ve been educated as to the Child and Family Services Act about harbouring a youth that’s in care,” said Lewis. “Next time you’ll be charged. That’s part of the education process because a lot of people don’t understand. Their son brings in this youth that is a CFS ward and they’re not aware of it so now that they’re aware of it, they have no excuse and if we find them bringing these youth back into their residence then we’ll deal with it through the court system.” Project Detox identifies high-risk individuals who regularly cause disturbances downtown. “We send them to the courts with multiple charges in order to seek some type of counselling whether we can get them through addictions counselling, a dry-out period, something imposed by the courts when all else fails and obviously regular, conventional methods of trying to intervene in their lives isn’t working,” Lewis said. The offender management program focuses on people like violent offenders or drug dealers who have been released from jail with courtimposed conditions. “We can pay special attention to them and make sure they’re adhering closely to their conditions and the moment they’re not, Continued on Page 11
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