Penticton RCMP continue to investigate theft from vehicles as incidents rise

PENTICTON – Threats by the Penticton RCMP not to respond to theft from vehicles have not yet been acted upon, says Penticton’s top cop.

Supt. Ted De Jager presented his quarterly report to Penticton City Council this week and said officers continue to respond to theft from vehicles in spite of threats to withdraw the service.

In March of this year, De Jager said police would make a final appeal to the public to “lock it or lose it.”

“If the message does not get out after that, we will begin (this type) of differential response,” he said, adding if a theft was in progress, a cruiser would roll, but if a theft was reported after the fact the call would become a priority four, which means there would be no response, but the call would be recorded.

De Jager told council this week the detachment is still responding to theft from autos calls, but they are coming to the point where changes have to be made.

“We didn’t announce (in March) we would not be going to theft from autos, only that we were going to give it one last college try to get people to secure their vehicles and property before we would need to consider this course of action,” De Jager says in an email statement. “Many residents took that to mean we stopped going to them outright. This has not happened."

De Jager says if the detachment does go to a differential response model, each case will be assessed on its own merits. A vehicle damaged in the theft would result in a whole different charge, which may require investigation.

He says during the first quarter the theft from vehicles category in Penticton was up four per cent over the same period last year, from 187 incidents in 2017 to 194 in 2018.

Theft from vehicles was up 27 per cent between the fourth quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018, from 153 incidents to 194.

De Jager has consistently called theft from autos a preventable crime, urging residents repeatedly not to leave valuables in sight and to lock their vehicles.

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