Correspondence from Oak Bay Police Board re: Disbandment of the Regional Crime Unit

June 13, 2014

Mayors and Police Boards:

It was recently brought to the attention of the Oak Bay Police Board that, for various reasons, the Regional Crime Unit (RCU) is going to cease operations and disband by the end of 2014.

The Oak Bay Police Board, would like to acknowledge the dedication and commitment of the Unit in fulfilling its mandate of targeting prolific offenders on south Vancouver Island, since its inception in 2008. Among the many significant cases the unit has handled was the arrest of an offender in 2011. This offender was responsible for one of the worst stretches of residential break and enters the municipality of Oak Bay has ever experienced. These break ins resulted in the loss of thousands of dollars of property and caused a considerable amount of concern and unrest among not only residents in our community of Oak Bay, but all communities throughout the Capital Regional District. Working with officers from the Oak Bay Police Department and other municipal police agencies, RCU members were able to identify, apprehend and charge the individual responsible for these crimes with several Criminal Code offences. The eventual conviction of this one offender had a significant impact in re-instilling the public's confidence in local law enforcement and its ability to keep our communities among the safest in Canada. This is but one of the many 'high profile' cases in which the members of RCU were involved.

The Oak Bay Police Board understands fully that each organization has varying priorities and at times a shift in those organizational priorities may result in a necessity to re-deploy manpower to address those ever-changing pressures. However, we also believe it would certainly be unfortunate that, if by disbanding such an effective integrated unit such as the RCU, we were to lose the regional effectiveness that was achieved over six years of committed work in this area. As such, we would encourage each of our partner Police Boards and Municipal Councils to challenge their respective departments or detachments to liaise and work together to find a mechanism by which a formal inter-agency focus can be maintained so that these types of recidivist offenders and the crimes they commit continue to be proactively targeted through an intelligence-led, collaborative process.

On behalf of the Oak Bay Police Board, I have asked our Deputy Chief to discuss this issue further at the next Deputy Chief committee meeting.

Yours truly,

Mayor Nils Jensen Chair, Oak Bay Police Board

cc:

• Police Board Chair, Mayor Alastair Bryson, District of Central Saanich
• Police Board Chair, Mayor Frank Leonard, District of Saanich
• Police Board Vice Chair, Mayor Barbara Desjardins, Township of Esquimalt
• Police Board Chair, Mayor Dean Fortin, City of Victoria
• Mayor Larry Cross, Town of Sidney
• Mayor Jane Mendum District of Highlands
• Mayor Stewart Young, City of Langford
• Mayor Carol Hamilton, City of Colwood
• Mayor Graham Hill, District of View Royal
• Mayor John Ranns, District of Metchosin
• Mayor Wendal Milne, District of Sooke
• Mayor Alice Finall, District of North Saanich