Police agencies planning to withdraw from regional units could start a domino effect leading to the end of valuable policing resources in Greater Victoria, says the chair of the Capital Region Action Team for Sexually Exploited Youth.
“My concern is that if one municipality withdraws, then others will follow,” said Bill McElroy.
Last week, West Shore RCMP announced they will be quitting regional policing units concentrating on mental health and youth at risk by the end of next year, and will leave the intimate-partner violence unit at the end of 2026. Supt. Todd Preston said his detachment is enhancing its own resources in those areas as it focuses on West Shore communities.
Central Saanich is leaving the three teams in 2025.
McElroy said when police agencies leave regional teams, pulling their funding, that puts more of a financial burden on the remaining members, threatening the teams’ future.
The regional mobile youth services team — MYST — does essential work, said McElroy, whose regional action team is part of the Victoria Family Court and Youth Justice Committee, which advocates for service agencies that work on behalf of families and children in the capital region. “Based on my experience, integrated units are the way to go.”
A young person, for example, may live in one municipality, get lured into the sex trade by someone in another jurisdiction, get drugs in a third area and have a pimp in yet another municipality, he said.
The regional domestic violence unit, meanwhile, was established after six-year-old Christian Lee was killed by his father, Peter Lee, who also killed his wife, Sunny Park, and her parents before killing himself at their Oak Bay home in 2007.
A review found that Park had turned to three local police departments with her fears of violence at home.
The team that was subsequently set up “certainly hasn’t eliminated domestic violence but the only way to deal with this is on a regional basis,” McElroy said.
Oak Bay Mayor Kevin Murdoch, co-chair of the Integrated Policing Regional Governance Council, said that while he had not examined opting-out implications in depth, he believes that services are delivered efficiently and effectively when RCMP and municipal forces work together.
“Really effective policing is getting in front and achieving crime prevention,” he said.
When it comes to domestic abuse, “These are very high-risk situations that need that level of expertise and interdiction.”
Regional units bring a critical level of expertise and prevention, he said. While jurisdictions may hope they never need them, “you do want to have them, like the emergency response team.”
“It’s hard to weigh that against what value they have to any individual jurisdiction in any given year, but I think it’s fairly clear that they do provide a lot of value to the region.”
Murdoch said there’s been a significant push to expand the two-person regional mobile youth services team, which focuses on getting the most at-risk youth out of addiction and homelessness and on finding the supports they need, all resulting in cost-savings in the long run.
John Ducker, a former deputy chief of Victoria police, said the public expects broad-level thinking and co-operation throughout the region. “The problem is that none of these units that are set up seem to be able to withstand the pressures of artificial political boundaries in our area,” said Ducker, who retired from policing in 2014.
When agencies leave regional teams, it creates cracks in the system that could lead to “another inquiry down the line to figure out what went wrong when someone goes missing or some crime is undetected,” Ducker said. “The cycle keeps on repeating because we can’t seem to punch through these artificial political boundaries.”
But Saanich Police Chief Dean Duthie said he’s not overly concerned about West Shore RCMP and Central Saanich’s decision to leave the regional teams, noting integrated units have been dissolved in the past because of partners withdrawing.
When that happens, other municipalities and police department adapt and respond, he said, adding Saanich is part of 13 integrated units, some of which include municipal and RCMP departments, while some are solely municipal.
Victoria and Saanich partnered on an integrated canine services section a few years ago that is “working very well,” said Duthie. Saanich is also part of a reestablished internet child-exploitation unit, which ran as a pilot program starting in 2021.
The three units that the West Shore and Central Saanich are leaving “are not going away,” said Duthie, adding his department is committed to them. Saanich paid $53,138 this year for the mobile youth services team, $105,693 for the mental-health team, and $172,313 for the domestic-violence team.
He said area chiefs and RCMP commanders in the region meet monthly to discuss issues and find solutions to problems, something he expects to continue.
Preston has said that the regional teams spend a “disproportionate amount of time” outside the West Shore and neighbouring communities “despite the significant contributions being paid into these teams.”
The detachment contributes $74,345 per year to the mobile crisis response team, $37,349 for MYST and $121,827, plus $115,350 (the salary of one constable) to be part of the domestic violence unit.
While Preston acknowledged the “important work” being done by the regional domestic violence unit, he said the West Shore detachment is working toward the creation of its own intimate partner violence team over the next two years, providing “dedicated police and civilian resources to investigate and monitor the most serious reports of domestic violence. Where required, our unit will certainly monitor, liaise and share intelligence with partner agencies.”
Preston noted that the Integrated Mobile Crisis Response Team addressed only 35 calls on the West Shore last year. By contrast, the West Shore’s own Mental Health Crisis Response Team attended 513 calls in the first six months of 2024 alone.
“This is a marked improvement in service to our community — especially for those citizens that find themselves in a crisis,” said Preston, who has called West Shore RCMP its own “regional” police service, noting that it serves seven communities: Langford, Colwood, View Royal, Metchosin, Highlands, Esquimalt First Nation and Songhees First Nation.
Colwood Coun. Ian Ward agreed, saying the West Shore is better served by its own police force and health-care-provider partners than by regional teams.
“This focus on keeping our dollars on the West Shore is something many of us increasingly see as the path forward for our community,” Ward wrote in a statement to the Times 91原创.
“While Victoria and Saanich (and attached Oak Bay and Esquimalt) surely benefit from a regional approach, the West Shore is increasingly becoming a region of our own, independent of the ‘core’.”
