The move into the North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP detachment’s long-anticipated new $48-million state-of-the-art headquarters begins on May 21.
Detachment head Staff Sergeant Ken Beard told the City of Duncan’s council at its meeting on May 6 that all the equipment, exhibits, files and other material from the old detachment on Canada Avenue will be transitioned to the new building in an orderly fashion.
He said the grand opening of the new facility, located on a five-acre property owned by the Municipality of North Cowichan bordering Ford Road and Drinkwater Road, is set for June 14.
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The new RCMP building will be a hub detachment that will bring together the North Cowichan/Duncan detachment, Forensic Identification Services, South Island Traffic Services, First Nations Policing and some services of the Shawnigan Lake RCMP detachment under one roof.
The RCMP detachment on Canada Avenue is well past the end of its life.
“The detachment has been fortunate to hire a local carver who will carve a 12-foot high totem pole for the new detachment,” Beard said in a year-end report from the detachment.
“It should be ready for mid-summer. It will be a beautiful addition to the new detachment and represents the strong relationship we have with Cowichan Tribes.”
Beard said the detachment received a total of 20,746 calls for service in 2023, a 3.5 per cent increase over 2022.
He said the detachment is currently averaging approximately 450 calls for service a week, so the amount of calls is constantly trending upwards, with some “eye-catching” statistics.
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Beard said that in Duncan, break-and-enter calls from businesses have increased 150 per cent, from six to 15 calls, in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same time period last year, and B&Es are also up 200 per cent, from four to 12, at locations other than businesses and residences in the city over the same time period.
B&Es at residences in Duncan were up 33 per cent in the first quarter.
“The increase in B&Es at businesses was predominately related to the (closed Ramada Hotel) on the Trans-Canada Highway, but we were able to identify a suspect involved and we laid charges and the activity there has slowed down quite a bit after that,” he said.
“There were a number of other B&Es that made up the balance of the statistics at a building under construction on Ypres Street. What was happening there were people were hopping over the fence and stealing small items. There’s no video footage there so we were unable to identify suspects involved.”
Coun. Garry Bruce asked Beard why B&Es were up in Duncan, but down in many other jurisdictions in the Cowichan Valley.
Beard said he can’t say for sure why, but the majority of B&Es at residences in the city were in vacant houses and houses under construction.
“Sometimes it would be people that were using them to stay in overnight, and small amounts of tools were taken, so it seems to be a bit of an opportunistic type of situation,” he said.