Some forms of crime are on the rise in Sechelt due to the number of homeless in the area, according to Sunshine Coast RCMP Staff Sgt. Vishal Mathura.
Mathura went over his detachment’s quarterly crime statistics at Sechelt council on Oct. 7, pointing out the jump in provincial statue crimes this past summer.
“This is your Liquor Act, so if someone’s intoxicated in a public place, consumes an alcoholic beverage in public, supplies it to minors; also any events under the Mental Health Act, Child, Family and Community Services Act, Wildlife Act and Trespasses Act. In that we have a dramatic increase: 132 as opposed to 99 last year,” Mathura said, noting the increase was due to chronic offenders, “specifically the homeless population we have in Sechelt.”
“They live down here on Cowrie Street and in the woods, and it is a challenge for us because we have to go and respond to the call. Sometimes we arrest those people, sometimes we give them a warning. But if we do arrest them, take them back to cells, they may stay in custody, but more often than not they’re released from custody, they’re back on the streets and they can reoffend again.”
Mathura said the fact that the offenders are homeless means they will naturally have more interactions with the public that could lead to police being called.
“So in my opinion, actually the greatest challenge we face here in Sechelt is our homeless population and how to deal with them because there’s only so much we, the police, can do to remedy that,” Mathura said.
Coun. Noel Muller asked how much RCMP staff time is spent dealing with the homeless population in Sechelt.
“One of our chronic offenders, I asked one of my officers to look up his statistics, so far this year, actually it was in the summer time, we had him mentioned in 98 files. Just one person, and we have multiple homeless,” Mathura said.
“Do I have a hard statistic as to how much police time? Unfortunately I don’t, but a good amount of time that could be used doing proactive work is dealing with chronic offenders, prolific offenders who are homeless in this community.”
Coun. Alice Lutes said that by Mathura’s report it was obvious that “what we’re doing isn’t working,” adding: “I understand that we have been assigned a mental health outreach worker. Has that made any difference?”
Mathura said he had just met the new mental health worker that day and thought it was a positive step forward, but he wasn’t sure if it would make a difference for the RCMP.
Lutes suggested perhaps the opening of the cold weather shelter would help lower the instances of crimes involving homeless people, but Mathura said it wouldn’t.
“Because it causes disturbances and calls for us to go to the homeless shelter. It’s chronic.”
