Retired RCMP officer Ed Hill is well known on the Sunshine Coast as an artist and raconteur, and earlier this week he used those storytelling skills to make a point to the Sunshine Coast Regional District’s policing committee.
Hill grabbed the committee’s attention with his recollection of an investigation into the murder of a Surrey gas station attendant, and the killer’s graphic description of how the victim “squirmed like a worm on a hot frying pan” as he was shot several times.
Hill explained that, after meeting a woman who works alone on a night shift at a Gibsons gas station, he worries about the same fate befalling her or others because of the impact of overstretched RCMP resources.
He told the committee he had been opposed to the 2003 amalgamation of the Gibsons and Sechelt detachments because he feared it would lead to Gibsons getting “second-rate policing.” And, he said, that’s what seems to be happening, both in Gibsons and on the Coast as a whole.
“I believe the Sunshine Coast is not getting the policing it should, because we are down in manpower. We are below average in terms of the number of police officers we have on the Sunshine Coast,” he said, adding that as a result officers on patrol no longer had the time to build relationships and learn who the “night people” are in the community and do things like make a point of popping in to check on the well-being of people working alone on the night shift.
“Gibsons has received less policing, in a public perception sense,” Hill claimed. “When your citizens don’t know who you are, the writing’s on the wall.”
Sunshine Coast detachment commander Staff Sgt. Vishal Mathura, who was also at the meeting, said Hill’s points about workloads and staffing were accurate, and there’s no doubt in his mind the detachment is short of officers.
“Last year I determined that I could use, probably, another 10 officers,” he noted. “Ten officers would allow us to thoroughly investigate things, and actually do some proactive. Right now we’re pretty much reactive in our ability to do investigations.”
He said the issue is money, and right now any increase in budget for the Sunshine Coast detachment would come at the expense of other detachments.
Mathura went on to say, however, that the Sunshine Coast is doing well with limited resources and continues to boast the lowest crime rate in the Lower Mainland District. He also said, despite the public perception Hill talked about, the number of patrols in Gibsons is actually up since the late ’90s and early 2000s.
Hill said he raised the issues to support, not criticize, RCMP.
“I’m not throwing anyone under the bus here,” he said. “Some of what I’m saying [Staff Sgt.] Vishal [Mathura] can’t say. Some of what I’m saying the members can’t say. Because the force will find a way of putting them in their place, the force will find a way of disciplining them, the force will find a way of shutting them up. But I can say it.”
The policing committee voted to send the issue of RCMP resources on to a future meeting of the community services committee for further discussion.
