Kelowna community safety director Darren Caul is pictured in this submitted photo.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/City of Kelowna

KELOWNA - For a man with a passion for community safety, winning the job as Kelowna's new community safety director was the ideal career move for Darren Caul.

Just 10 days into his new job, Caul has already drafted a report to council on developing better ways to integrate supportive housing into the city. That goes to council on Monday, July 29.

Caul replaces Lance Kayfish, who has temporarily filled that position since it was created this past winter.

“I’m passionate about community safety and crime prevention,” Caul told iNFOnews.ca.

He comes with a long list of credentials for the job.

He grew up in Victoria and the Lower Mainland and he has a Masters degree in criminal justice from the University of the Fraser Valley. He’s worked for or with RCMP detachments (though he was never a police officer), the National Crime Prevention Centre, Alberta Justice doing crime prevention and working with communities, government and educational organizations on reducing crime and “improving communities’ sense of safety.”

For the past five year’s he was executive director of Employment Standards in Alberta.

This is a rare opportunity to do this kind of work since few Canadian cities have full-time community safety directors at a senior management level.

“Kelowna is struggling with the same social and crime problems that similar sized and larger cities are struggling with across North America,” Caul said. “I know community safety is a priority for council. I know it’s a priority for residents and businesses alike. That’s why they’ve created this position and that’s why I’m delighted to be the person who comes in and carries out that mandate.

So, how is he going to solve these problems in Kelowna?

“I really believe in taking a balanced approach,” Caul said. “For us to be effective, we absolutely have to connect people with the social supports they need and we have to enforce the law when criminal actives occur. I think, taking a balanced approach, a strategic approach that involves education, prevention, intervention and enforcement are absolutely essential."

On the education side, he gave the example of seniors being the people who are most concerned about crime but they are, in fact, less often victimized than other age groups. That’s the kind of message that needs to be sent to the community, he said.

In terms of how those messages are to be sent, especially when it comes to issues surrounding supportive housing, it’s too early in his tenure for him to talk about. His report to council is aimed at getting the politicians support to develop a model for doing just that. He points out Kelowna can learn from what's being done in other cities.

“Because cities across North America are struggling with many of the same issues, we need to look around and identify evidence-based practices,” Caul said. “There are other initiatives, programs and models that others have tried and that we can try here. So, by having a dedicated, senior position in Kelowna, focused on community safety, that’s the kind of attention and resourcing we can offer this issue.”

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