Domestic violence, questions about the status of alleged local drug kingpins and small-scale theft highlight forthcoming RCMP report to Kamloops Council
A new report from the top cop in Kamloops suggests the City is getting comparatively safer.
After being given the distinction of having the worst crime severity index figure in the country through 2023, the full-year statistics set to be put to Kamloops Council on Tuesday suggest that dubious title is not likely to be maintained.
The base numbers would suggest that overall criminal activity has declined through 2024.
RCMP stats show actual criminal code offenses were down by 13% compared with 2023.
Crimes targeting or involving individuals was down about 3% last year, with the Mounties responding to 3,538 calls of someone feeling threatened, or worse.
Of those calls, RCMP determined that about 20% of them were deemed not criminal in nature.
That one-in-five figure has remained consistent since the end of the pandemic, where RCMP determined in 2021 that around 27% of the time they rolled out for a criminal complaint, there was not enough of a basis to deem whatever was taking place as criminal.
Personal and violent crimes on the decline
The full-year analysis would suggest that punch-ups, and those who might take it a step further, have seemed ease up a bit through last year.
RCMP stats show there were 986 calls for common assault in 2024 — down about 4% compared to the year before, while calls for assault with a weapon dropped by 8%, but still required the Mounties to be sent out 250 times.
Less people were robbed through all of last year in Kamloops as well, with just 48 calls attended by the RCMP.
That’s down about 20% compared to 2023, but off close to 43% in 2022, where 84 people reported being robbed by someone.
Sexual and domestic violence trends remain troubling
While the statistics are not gender-specific, the full-year stat-lines would suggest that women in Kamloops are about three-times more likely to be subject to some form of sexual assault than they are to having their purse stolen.
While the 2024 numbers are down about 14% year over year, there were still 132 cases of sexual assault that RCMP in Kamloops responded to last year, compared to the 48 robberies which took place.
When it comes to violence inside the home, the year-over-year figures raise their own questions.
Since 2021 and the following three years, Kamloops Mounties have been summoned an average of 1,100 times per year to domestic violence calls.
Intimate Partner Violence Stats from 2021 to 2024/via Kamloops RCMP
The number of cases reviewed by the Intimate Partner Violence Coordinator out of the Kamloops RCMP detachment has been trending downward, as has the number of cases which have been forwarded to the Crown for charges.
Of the 1,130 domestic violence calls made to the RCMP in 2021, 939 were investigated.
That represents a figure of about 82% — four in five calls that were put under review.
Of them, 327 went forward to prosecutors for potential charges — a review-to-recommendation ratio of just under 35%.
While the review-to-recommendation ratio increased the following years to around 46% in both 2022 and 2023, the trend then went into reversal last year — back down to 32%.
The number of domestic violence calls which ended up shifting over to Crown for charges has gone from roughly one-in-three in 2021 to roughly one-in-five last year.
The report from Superintendent Jeff Pelley does not provide any insight into the noticeable shift in the numbers, only making mention of some internal changes within the domestic violence team itself.
“In 2024, the Violence In Relationship Coordinator took conduct of several serious domestic violence investigations while still providing guidance to front line responders,” stated Pelley. “Moreover, in the matters the VIR Coordinator took conduct of, she quickly obtained charge approval and has already obtained convictions in multiple instances.”
Business threats shift from night to day
The data would also indicate the RCMP’s crackdown on prolific offenders is starting to pay further dividends.
Kamloops RCMP have identified around a dozen individuals they keep tabs on.
Pelley’s report says half of them are now in custody as part of the broader crackdown by the RCMP, saying that made a major dent in the number of commercial break-and-enters that were hitting businesses on multiple occasions.
Figures showing the number of property crimes in Kamloops over the past four years/via Kamloops RCMP
“For the months of February, March and April 2024 Kamloops experienced an average of eight business B&Es per week,” states Kelly.
Pelley says this pushed them into a coordinated action, prompting a crackdown on four of the lead offenders.
His report says each one of them has pled guilty to various break-and-enter charges, with one of them getting close to two years in jail.
Two others have also been put in jail for a shorter time, while the fourth is awaiting sentencing.
“For the months of June, July and August 2024, Kamloops experienced an average of four business B&Es per week,” noted Pelley in his report.
In total, commercial break-ins dropped last year by 42%, going from just under 500 commercial B&E’s (497) in 2023, down to 288.
The report by the top cop in Kamloops says the Mounties also attempted to crack down on vehicle thefts as well.
“For the months of July and August 2024, Kamloops averaged 10 vehicle thefts per week,” notes Kelly in his report.
Pelley says the Crime Reduction Unit then shifted its attention to vehicle thefts, cracking down on some of the key suspects — arresting four between July and September, taking four of them into custody.
Three have already pleaded guilty, while a 4th remains held in custody awaiting trial.
Pelley’s report suggests the prolific offenders they’ve identified have been responsible for a large portion of the overall crimes targeting businesses and vehicles.
However, this year has seen a spike in the number of home break-and-enters, with the stats showing a 27% rise in the number of home break-ins, going from 150 in 2023 to 191 homes being broken into and stolen from last year.
Kamloops RCMP are also reporting a continued and sharp rise in the number of shoplifting calls.
Since the end of the pandemic in 2021, the number of reported thefts from local businesses through shoplifting has been spiking, with shoplifting rates in Kamloops going up 19% over 2024.
While the latest tally for 2024 has not been laid out, the North Shore Business Improvement estimates that around $750,000 was lost among all Kamloops retailers through 2023.
That number is likely to come close — or surpass — $1 million in losses this year.
Overall, Pelley’s report contends the dozen prolific offenders they targeted last year were involved in 334 different files, prompting the Mounties to recommend 56 charges.
It states that around half the charges, 26 related to property crimes, while 27 others involved violent offenses.
Looser restrictions on alleged gang leader?
RCMP mug shot of 41-year old Cameron Cole/via RCMP
Though this has not been clarified, the wording in part of Pelley’s report would appear to suggest that one of the two men publicly identified by the Mounties as a leaders of a violent drug war in Kamloops is now even more free to make his way around the city, despite facing a string of new charges.
A part of Pelley’s report suggests 41-year old Cameron Cole has had his bail restrictions loosened in discussing the RCMP’s Crime Reduction Unit’s work through the last year, and its role in the ongoing gang conflict.
In it, he goes on to note — but not name — the two men at the head of the gangs battling for control of the local drug trade, who have previously been identified as Justin Hunt and Cameron Cole.
Hunt is currently doing four years in prison for a previous conviction in the Lower Mainland.
“One of the individuals [Hunt] was jailed and remains in custody, while the second was under house arrest (on electronic monitoring) until very recently,” noted Pelley in his report.
Cole had been put under electronic monitoring and a curfew, on top of a $15,000 bond, at the end of January after a set of new charges were sworn against him and another suspect.
Those charges relate back to a bust the Mounties made in Brocklehurst in May of 2023, which saw RCMP seize large amounts of drugs, on top of a number of weapons.
More details on this could be forthcoming at the Tuesday open Council meeting.
