If the sa国际传媒 government wants to ensure the effectiveness of integrated policing units, adequate funding would help. But the better approach for Greater Victoria would be to insist that the area鈥檚 seven police departments become one regional force.
The government has introduced legislation that would force municipalities to participate in integrated policing units. Justice Minister Suzanne Anton could not say if the legislation included a formula that would set out how many officers or how much funding municipalities would have to contribute.
Inter-departmental co-operation is a good idea, and it works. Ten integrated policing units operate across Greater Victoria and Vancouver Island, including the Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit, the Integrated Road Safety Unit and the Mobile Youth Services Team.
But the Regional Crime Unit, which has had considerable success in apprehending the region鈥檚 most prolific property criminals, will be disbanded at the end of the year. The unit started to come apart when Victoria鈥檚 police department withdrew in 2009. Other municipalities followed suit, and the unit was left with the participation of Saanich and the RCMP.
One of the weaknesses of the integrated approach is its voluntary nature, but forcing unwilling municipalities to participate won鈥檛 make things better. The reason for the unit鈥檚 collapse is that budget restraints forced individual departments to consider their own finances first. If the province is forcing municipalities to participate, it should provide the funding to do so.
The province said its legislation is in response to recommendations from Wally Oppal, who has served on both the sa国际传媒 Supreme Court and the sa国际传媒 Court of Appeal. Oppal headed a commission of inquiry into policing in sa国际传媒, and his 1994 report called for more regionalization of police services, but stopped short of recommending amalgamation of police departments.
After conducting the missing-women inquiry, which closed in 2013, Oppal changed his mind.
鈥淚 recommend that [the] provincial government commit to establishing a Greater Vancouver police force through a consultative process with all stakeholders,鈥� he wrote. He extended that same recommendation to Greater Victoria.
Robert Gordon, the director of the school of criminology at Simon Fraser University who contributed to the missing-women inquiry, has worked as a constable in several police services abroad. He said that when he came to sa国际传媒, he was astounded that Vancouver and Victoria were the last metropolitan areas in sa国际传媒 not to be served by single police forces.
Gordon said the way policing is done in the two regions has evolved by circumstance, not by design, and doesn鈥檛 make much sense.
It seems logical that policing the region with one department, rather than seven, would be better in many ways. What seems logical, though, is not always supported by facts. It鈥檚 a decision that should be guided by a thorough study.
But the province has no appetite for such a study. Anton is adamant that the government won鈥檛 force police departments to amalgamate. That leaves it up to the municipalities, and one holdout could ensure it never happens.
Crime ignores regional boundaries, yet boundaries and jurisdictions get in the way of effective police work. A patchwork of police departments in a region lends itself to communication failures, as was evident in the Robert Pickton serial-murder case on the mainland and the Peter Lee murder-suicide case in Oak Bay.
Individual police departments are answerable to local municipal governments, and as Victoria Police Chief Frank Elsner has said: 鈥淭here comes a point when we have to look after ourselves. We have to make sure we leave the lights on at home.鈥�
But we should look at all of Greater Victoria as 鈥渉ome.鈥� The province should stiffen its spine and step in.
