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March 04, 2022 - 7:30 AM
There are hundreds of criminals loose in Kelowna who may be committing other crimes while waiting for their day in court or to be sentenced.
Earlier this week, RCMP Supt. Kara Triance told city council the criminals were out on the street because an overworked B.C. Prosecution Service doesn’t have time to determine if criminal charges are worth laying.
That’s not quite the case.
“I referred to the number of files the Kelowna RCMP tracks on our police database that indicate they are awaiting ‘charge assessment,’” she clarified in an email to iNFOnews.ca yesterday, March 3. “What I should have said, was these files are still in various stages of the court process including charge assessment, charge approvals, trials or resolutions”.
READ MORE: 'Beyond shocking': Kelowna mayor appalled by number of criminals at large waiting to be charged
She told council that 78% of the 1,084 property crime files sent to the prosecution office in 2021 were waiting for “charge assessments.” That’s 884 files.
When all crimes were included, 80% of the 3,358 files were waiting for charge assessments, for a total of 2,675 files.
That sparked a call by the B.C. Crown Counsel Association yesterday for five more prosecutors to be added to the Kelowna office, even though the B.C. Prosecution Service has a dramatically different view of how files are assessed.
The prosecution service does track data differently than the RCMP. Its 2021 stats are based on when they receive the file so, some of the crimes it reviews may have occurred in 2020 but were not forwarded until 2021.
Its data shows it received 1,962 reports that affected 2,048 accused people in 2021.
Of those 2,048 accused, decisions have been made on 1,927, which is 94%. That means there are 121 outstanding files, 69 of which have been returned to the police and 52 are still "in progress."
Out of those 1,927 accused where decisions were made, 82% (1,584) were approved to go to court, 16% (314) came back “no charge” and the rest (29) were referred for alternative measures.
Provincewide, 79% of files are assessed within 30 days after receiving them, the prosecution service said in an email.
Triance does not have data that compares how many files the Kelowna RCMP have waiting for case assessment compared to the numbers the prosecution service has.
What she does stick by is the fact that there are still hundreds of accused who have yet to go through the court system and may be committing further crimes while they wait.
“Just as you arrest somebody who has broken into a vehicle, who has broken into a house, who has committed property crime in our community, theft from a business and now they’ve been brought to the courts and we’re waiting for those to be approved and brought before a judge,” she told council. “That is a significant delay and more time for crime to be committed in our community.”
The B.C. Crown Counsel Association's news release says it has been lobbying for staff increases in the Kelowna office since 2017, even despite the differences in the data.
“Either way, this brings to light the real issue - that Kelowna is growing, and our workload there is growing too,” Kevin Marks, president of the B.C. Crown Counsel Association, said in the news release. “It’s important that we have a properly resourced justice system to make sure criminals are arrested and prosecuted in a timely manner to protect the public.
“Our prosecutors have worked essentially without a break for more than a year,” Marks said. “They work nights and weekends to get the job done. They are under incredible stress, and comments implying they are somehow not doing their jobs is hurtful to our hard working members in Kelowna. It’s just not true, and more needs to be done to get to the root of the problem and provide adequate resources in the Kelowna office. When Crown Counsel offices are not adequately resourced, there is a real risk that justice will not be served – especially true in Kelowna, one of the fastest growing regions in the province.”
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