There has been an increase in the number of violent crimes reported in Campbell River.
According to Cst. Maury Tyre, “For the last three or four years, we have seen a general spike in ‘calls for service’ in Campbell River. One of those years actually saw roughly a 12% increase. A lot of those increases are based on things like calls for service, checking wellbeing, and things like that. But effectively, when there is an increase in calls for service, you’re also going to have an increase in violence.”
He used to work in small remote communities similar to Cortes Island, where policing was fundamentally different.
“If there was a break in, you usually knew exactly who to talk to. In a lot of the communities, people would be like, ‘Well, ‘I know it was so and so, but I don’t want ’em to go to jail. I just want my stuff back.’”
So the police would go directly to the thief’s house and say, “Hey, I know. They know. Where is the stuff?”
“And they’d be like, ‘okay.'”
Tyre also pointed out that the Campbell River RCMP police an area of about 50,000 people.
Statistics about violent crime in an area that size can be misleading. If you have an average of one homicide a year and suddenly there are two – that is a huge spike in the statistics, but only one instance.
“What we’re seeing is things like the use of bear spray, or knives. We’re not dealing with a huge increase in gun violence or anything like that, like other major centres might be dealing with,” he explained.
“For the most part, the general public is quite safe. Most of the violence is between people who know each other.”
Some of the conflicts are in homes and may arise from alcohol, drugs, or financial strains.
“People just will lash out in ways maybe they don’t normally do,” said Cst. Tyre.
He added, ”When we’re looking at instances like a purposeful hit and run, or somebody stabbing somebody and everything like that, a lot of times what’s happened is linked to other levels of crime. So a big part for police at that point becomes the issue of how we investigate to determine the root cause of the violence. For instance, back into December a security guard at Walmart was stabbed by a shoplifter. The basic crime was theft. What happened is when someone interrupted it, that ended up in a violent episode.”
There have been several other incidents, which Cst Tyre described as unique situations:
- Someone was killed during a robbery in late March, or early April.
- A shooting incident, on June 21, ended with a woman in the hospital and a man dead ‘from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.’
- On June 13, a Campbell River man was killed during a hostage situation at local marina.
“Sadly, most of the larger increases (in violence) are based at the street drug user level, which is really disheartening because for the most part, what you do have is people taking (drugs) who are disadvantaged. They are ‘logic compromised.’ Whether from trauma, whether from drug use or both, their ability to assess danger, et cetera – it’s just not there,” said Tyre.
The RCMP are also noticing that some teenagers have started carrying knives or bear spray.
“These kids get into fights or arguments and all of a sudden they’re producing a knife, or producing bear spray and spraying somebody. Well, those are assaults with weapons, even if you don’t stab somebody. If you end up pulling that knife and making that threat with it, an attempt is the same as the actual event.”
“In some cases, people are putting themselves in situations that they don’t need to be in. We’re seeing basic arguments escalating quickly and some of it seems to be very, very respect based. Like ‘you don’t respect me, because you insulted me.’ Rather than get in a basic fight, people are like ‘I refuse to lose, so I’m going to escalate.’”
Tyre said most of these incidents occur when people are high on drugs or alcohol.
“On communities and crime, as I say to people, ‘if it wasn’t for drugs and alcohol, I wouldn’t have a job, or I’d definitely be doing something a lot differently’.”
“Alcohol and street drugs inhibit your logic, so if you’re on them, you’re going to do things that you just might not do on a day to day basis.”
He pointed out that society has become more permissive. People are no longer taken before the court for basic use. They no longer face jail time. People are using drugs more openly and the RCMP are dealing with the associated acts of violence more often.
Tyre has been called in to fights that started after someone passed out, only to regain consciousness while someone was rummaging through their pockets. Knives were used in the resulting battle.
“It’s those basic situations that we’re just seeing the kind of escalation into violence, which wasn’t quite there a few years ago,” he said.
“I think a lot of that has to do with the toxicity of the drugs, and I don’t put it in as a hidden toxicity. Unfortunately, most of the users out there know what they’re getting. In fact, some are looking for stronger items, like even carfentanil in their drugs. So, the drugs themselves, they’re just brutally toxic and they have a terrible, terrible effect on people.”
During the last two or three years, the RCMP have found themselves repeatedly saving people that are overdosing multiple times a week.
“That in itself is really concerning because you see people that maybe you’ve dealt with two weeks prior that are one person, and two weeks later you see them and, and they’re totally, totally different,” said Tyre.
“It’s a very vicious cycle. Alcohol’s been a part of society for quite some time. Even opioids have been part of society as a recreational use item and were effectively only removed from society about a hundred years ago.”
He has seen people handle alcohol, especially, one of two ways:
“I’ve met people that if they drink, they get drunk, they have fun, they laugh, they fall down and they go to bed. Then other people, when they drink they get angry. If you’re the person that finds drinking makes you angry, you’re probably not the person that should be drinking. That is what leads to the violence.”
The Campbell River RCMP are policing an area that stretches north from the Oyster River, up to Robert’s Lake and the Strathcona Lodge. There might be five officers on a shift. While there are higher crime areas, the police need to respond to situations in other areas as well. For example, two officers might need to respond to a domestic situation in Oyster River at the same time that two others are at a motor vehicle accident close to Roberts Lake.
While there has been a recent increase in the number of violent crimes, Cst. Tyre wants to assure the public that they do not need to be overly concerned about their own safety.
“Those are oddities. Unless you’re specifically putting yourself into a situation, it’s not overly dangerous.”
In most Campbell River neighbourhoods, it is okay to go out for a walk at night.
He added that you should probably take someone with you.
Top photo credit: Fear Photo by Melanie Wasser on Unsplash
Sign-up for Cortes Currents email-out:
To receive an emailed catalogue of articles on Cortes Currents, send a (blank) email to subscribe to your desired frequency:
- Daily, (articles posted during the last 24 hours) – cortescurrents-daily+subscribe@cortes.groups.io
- Weekly Digest cortescurrents – cortescurrents-weekly+subscribe@cortes.groups.io