As of the end of 2025, Campbell River, RCMP reported a significant decline in crime within their jurisdiction. Roy Hales interviewed Inspector Jeff Preston of the RCMP and Campbell River’s Director of Community Safety, Jeff Fort, to find out what they think about these statistics, whether there really is a decrease in crime and what may have caused this.
A few weeks ago, I did a report to the city council here to give them an overview of how crime stats have been going within the city. And we were comparing year over year, from January to the end of November from 2024 to 2025.
And the numbers that we were able to report were: our calls for service within the city of Campbell River were down 11%. The violent crime numbers were down about 20%, and the property crime for the entire city was down nearly 28%. More specifically in the downtown core of the city.
The overall call for service, were down 21%. The violent crime in the downtown core was down 29%, and the property crime in the downtown core was down 38% or nearly 38%. They were very encouraging numbers to be able to report.
— RCMP Inspector Jeff Preston
Jeff Fort concurred:
We did a study in 2023. Through the citizen satisfaction survey that’s in the press release, you’ll see those numbers have shifted upwards, in terms of those that are satisfied with policing services, with bylaw services. 68% of folks are satisfied with the efforts we’re making in downtown in terms of improving safety.
71% this year feel neutral, safe, or very safe downtown. And that was 52% back in 2023. So, , There’s still incidents where people feel unsafe, but I think the trend is one of improvement.
Asked whether the apparent success in crime reduction was actually a relocation of criminal activities away from the downtown core, pushing it out into the suburbs, Inspector Preston said no, the statistics showed a decrease in reported crime across the entire jurisdiction of his detachment.
Roy asked what had happened to bring about this improvement. Inspector Preston acknowledged that adding police officers to focus on the downtown area was somewhat helpful, as was an increase in the number of bylaw officers. He also mentioned some benefit from a programme that helps to keep repeat violent offenders behind bars (presumably ReVOII): “We’ve been successful at keeping some of our violent offenders in prison, which obviously will decrease the number of calls that we get.”
But he placed greater stress on the success of the Homewood supported housing initiative which has “helped 40 individuals transition into more stable housing over the last year.” He mentioned that in the past, many calls on the RCMP have been for checking the wellbeing of people on the streets, who may have drug addiction or mental health issues; this puts a strain on police resources.
He felt that money spent on supportive housing — the kind of “housing first” initiative pioneered in Finland, but slowly being adopted by other countries — is a good investment:
So I think the downstream effects of that kind of investment , like the social return on investment is considerable. Because you’re no longer having bylaw officers and RCMP involved. Having people in stable housing — the Housing First principle — I think definitely pays dividends.
The city’s tried to invest in both safety related resources like bylaw officers and additional security and RCMP but also complimented that with, working with the province that has the mandate around housing to do our best to expand the stock of supportive housing .
And I definitely think that’s contributed to, to lower rates across the board for crime. I think we recognize we need more. We certainly need more [housing] stock and some solutions that get people off the street or less precariously housed.
The drain on community resources posed by vulnerable people left untended on the streets is larger than people realise, he said. “Our firefighters provide a first-responder role and are often called to overdose situations. We see our calls for service to the fire department go up by several thousand each year because of these types of calls.”
While Inspector Preston doesn’t associate “serious crime” with the homeless population, he acknowledges that there is some correlation between high numbers of unhoused people and criminal activity: “The unhoused — whether you deem it survival-based crime or whatever — will sometimes engage in property crime just to get by, to survive. And that has an impact on local businesses.”
Drug related charges have risen significantly this year — 71 % higher than 2024 — but Preston sees this as a success story. “I actually want to see that number higher, in the sense that it means we are out there catching people selling drugs.”
Roy asked what programmes or resources were contributing to the decline in crime, and noted that he saw a lot more security personnel last time he was in town. Jeff Ford said that “any number” of agencies were involved in all facets of the problem, and that there was strong volunteerism in Campbell River.
Ford described a structure called a “situation table” that brings together helping agencies for weekly meetings to share awareness of individuals “at higher risk” and coordinate the effort to provide “wraparound” support to them.
I certainly don’t think that police security and bylaw [enforcement] are the answer, necessarily, to crime stats coming down. I think it’s a whole-of-society kind of investment. And we continue to try and partner on some of those initiatives.
Ford spoke with enthusiasm about efforts to revitalise and maintain public spaces, such as the Hamilton Neighbourhood Association which has been creating park/trail projects. “Families are going to those areas where they were not previously going because they either didn’t feel safe or there wasn’t anything there. And now they are there, and crime seems to be coming down. Any of those types of activities and positive experiences for people to go out and enjoy will help decrease crime as well.”
Ford was optimistic about the prospects for improving Campbell River’s public spaces and community life.
When I walk through Campbell River, I think there’s so many strengths that that it has to offer; and interestingly the consultants that we worked with on the community safety plan said the same thing — that they felt that Campbell River had so many strengths and that it seemed really vibrant. And that was relative to other places that they felt were almost at a tipping point one way or another…. And they didn’t see that here.
Inspector Preston felt that there was a lot of progress remaining to be made.
One of the questions that we’ve faced is, are we satisfied with these numbers? And I can say I’m not satisfied, but I’m encouraged. I’ll only be satisfied when crime doesn’t exist — which is probably not a likely situation! However, I’m very encouraged that the numbers are going in the right way. I’m encouraged because we work collaboratively with a lot of community groups, with agencies, with the city and those [efforts] are bearing fruit, and , that’s a good sign.
So we want to keep moving in the right direction. And there’s going to be hiccups. We know that there’s bumps in the road. But with this collaboration from a whole bunch of people, we’re going in the right direction and we’ll continue that in 2026, hopefully.
Ford concurred. “I would say, really briefly, the same thing, Encouraged, but not complacent. Because I think there’s still a lot of work to do.”
Not everyone shares the official perspective on the encouraging statistics reported by RCMP. In early January, Roy hopes to interview Sue Moen, a longtime advocate for the homeless. She was the Salvation Army’s representative in the Campbell River & District Coalition to end homelessness, and she has spoken out publicly on many occasions in defence and support of unhoused people.
On one occasion, she spent a night on the street to see for herself what conditions were really like. Ms. Moen has a somewhat different interpretation of the drop in reported crime and for those interested in this story, Cortes Currents hopes to interview her shortly after the new year.
[The radio version of this interview also includes a discussion of Campbell River RCMP’s use of restorative justice as an alternative to incarceration. Interview by Roy Hale, article by De Clarke. All illustrations by Midjourney, prompts by author.]