The North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP detachment would need a lot more resources and police officers to do a more thorough job of keeping the community safe, said Staff Sergeant Ken Beard.

Beard, head of the detachment, was taking questions from members of DuncanB次元官网网址檚 city council at its meeting on Feb. 24 when he was asked by Coun. Tom Duncan about a recent drug bust in the region in which a mid-level drug dealer from Victoria was arrested with a large quantity of drugs and weapons after a traffic stop.

Duncan said he has seen people standing on street corners in the city that are not on bus routes every day at about the same time, and he expects they are waiting for their drug dealers to arrive.

B次元官网网址淚s there a way to make sure that the local police are aware of the approximate times and areas where people are standing around waiting for their dealers to come?B次元官网网址� he asked Beard.

B次元官网网址淚 know it costs a lot of money to catch someone and put them in jail, but if you canB次元官网网址檛 buy drugs here in Duncan, I think thatB次元官网网址檚 a bit of a deterrent. Is there some way you could tackle this?B次元官网网址�

Beard said itB次元官网网址檚 a difficult situation to deal with on a day-to-day basis.

He said the detachment has members going to all kinds of different calls-for-service every day for a variety of different reasons, while at the same time the drug unit is actively building information and intelligence based on what they see in terms of drugs dealers in the community.

B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 one of those things where we can try to focus on that person thatB次元官网网址檚 standing on the street corner thatB次元官网网址檚 buying their own personal possession, or we can try to hit the minimum to mid-level drug dealers, which is probably more productive,B次元官网网址� Beard said.

B次元官网网址淲e could spend a lot of time trying to generate some lifestyle information on who is standing on the corner, but we would need a lot more resources to try and tackle that, working from the very ground up.B次元官网网址�

Duncan pointed out that itB次元官网网址檚 not the people on the corner who he wants to see dealt with, but the drug dealers who arrive in vehicles.

Coun. Garry Bruce asked Beard if he had a wish list, what would he ask city council to do to help the detachment?

Beard said more resources, including up to 20 more police officers, would be what he would ask for.

B次元官网网址淭hat would allow us to have people down in the highway corridor 24/7, and it would give us extra resources to work on our drug unit and extra resources to work in our general investigation section unit,B次元官网网址� he said.

B次元官网网址淚 think that would certainly help and also allow us to be more proactive in terms of being present in the community.B次元官网网址�

But Beard said he realizes that bringing in up to 20 new police officers may be prohibitive for the community.

B次元官网网址淗ow do we try to get as much done as we can while supporting the community to try and stay safe?B次元官网网址� he asked. B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 a difficult thing to try and address when youB次元官网网址檝e got so much need all over the place.B次元官网网址�