Kelowna City Hall will undergo renovations next year to increase staff space.
(JOHN MCDONALD / iNFOnews.ca)
July 16, 2018 - 4:03 PM
KELOWNA – It’s been a while since former Kelowna RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon was in charge of law and order in Kelowna, but he’s coming back as a consultant with the City.
McKinnon has been hired by to work with senior levels of government, social service agencies and community groups “to find ways to ensure the public feels safe on our streets,” according to a City of Kelowna media release.
The former top cop has until November to provide city council with recommendations “on how best to tackle the complex conditions that contribute to a lack of public safety,” the release states.
McKinnon says in the release that his assignment is not about enforcement.
“This is about the coordination of all levels of government and identifying the services needed upstream, before there’s a need for law enforcement,” he says.
Former Supt. Bill McKinnon
Image Credit: Contributed
Mayor Colin Basran says Kelowna is experiencing criminal activity in concentrated areas.
“There is a limit to how much can be solved through enforcement,” Basran says in the release. “Just adding more enforcement is clearly not enough.”
The city sees McKinnon’s job as focusing community groups and other levels of government on gaps in services needed to address the base social problems contributing to crime, along the lines of the Journey Home task force whose ambitious goal is to reach functional zero homelessness by 2024.
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