‘Less carnage’: Crackdown on street disorder in downtown Kelowna making progress

Taking a walk down Bernard Avenue in downtown Kelowna has a different feel to it now that the RCMP and the city have cracked down on street disorder, but a business owner said it’s going to take more pressure to maintain the positive change.

Todd Daniels owns Gallery Streetwear on Bernard Avenue and said things are calmer during the day after the RCMP and the city have put more resources towards policing open drug use downtown following months of complaints from the public about crime, drug use and homelessness.

“I’m hopeful that the daytime’s been better. We’re seeing just less carnage,” he said. “You want to be nice for the positive change, but we got to be realistic that this has to be maintained.”

The RCMP has ramped up foot patrols downtown and the city is sending more bylaw officers to the downtown core.

The provincial government also lifted the decriminalization of simple drug possession on Jan. 31.

Daniels said RCMP officers told him they have taken the opportunity to start seizing drugs and drug paraphernalia since then. That’s something Kelowna’s officer in charge Supt. Chris Goebel emphasized at a community forum last week.

The business owner said these efforts have helped during business hours, but he’s still concerned about what downtown is like at night. Gallery Streetwear’s window was smashed and thousands of dollars worth of inventory was stolen overnight a few weeks ago.

“I’ve been walking around at night, the night’s horrific,” he said. “My biggest fear is though, the night at break-ins keep happening.”

He’s happy to see some progress, but he said keeping the public pressure up is the only way things will keep getting better.

“It’s 100% everything. I think that there is a small faction of people that want to silence this whole thing, but nope, it’s got to be constant.” Daniels said.

He’s dubious, but trying to be hopeful, while the executive director of the Downtown Kelowna Association Paula Quinn is more optimistic.

Quinn said the RCMP and city’s efforts to increase foot patrol have already solved some of the disorder.

“Since the install of the foot patrols with the bylaw and the police, it was almost instantaneous,” she told iNFOnews.ca. “(It) has really helped them to not only visually see a difference, but to know that there’s more to come.”

The years-long provincial drug decriminalization pilot ended this past weekend so police can now arrest people for simple drug possession.

The end of decriminalization helped the police reduce the public drug use that was bothering businesses, she said.

“I think it gives the opportunity for the RCMP to be able to exercise some more ability to be able to approach and to talk to people, and have the ability to be able to understand where they’re coming from and what they can do about it,” Quinn said.

Now that there has been some change, she thinks it will keep going.

“We’ve got momentum, let’s keep that momentum going,” she said. “Businesses just now want to get back to what they do. They want to get back to work.”