In 2024 100 Mile House RCMP officially received enough body cams to outfit all 15 of its officers.
These new body cams will be worn by police officers at all times while interacting and engaging with the public. Sgt. Trevor Medernech, who is currently the acting detachment commander, shared this fact with the District of 100 Mile House Council during the RCMP's annual report to council.
"It's nothing overt or anything like that, you will see (a body camera) every time you interact with a police officer if they have a body-worn camera. It will be a green light and there is no need for us to turn off the camera unless we need to and there shouldn't be in a general interaction," Medernech said. "It doesn't always record unless it's red but it is a welcome asset to our detachment. I think gone are the days of any police force avoiding them."
During his report, Medernech touched on a wide range of topics and statistics. Council listened throughout and asked him several clarifying questions. He began by noting it has been 10 years now since the RCMP relocated to their current detachment building. He told council he is hoping the RCMP's asset management will sell the old detachment building which he acknowledged is "something of an eyesore."
"We have had a bunch of interest in it so I hope they find somebody truly interested to take it off our hands," Medernech said.
While staffing continues to be a struggle, Medernech said things are looking positive in the future. The RCMP have 16,000 applicants this year and he said the RCMP is streamlining the process of accepting and training them as fast as they can, with around 2,000 expected to be trained this year.
"We saw four new members at our detachment this year. Two were recruits, both are great members and you will see them out in the community," Medernech said, noting the two experienced constables are also happy to get to know the community.
Locally the RCMP, on paper, has 17 officers based out of the 100 Mile House detachment, in addition to four highway patrol officers.
Medernech did note however that four members of the detachment are currently off for a variety of reasons, both planned and unplanned. This includes Staff Sgt. Kevin Smith, who Medernech has taken over for. He noted they expect a couple of members to come back shortly and they're scheduled to receive a new recruit within the next few weeks.
The 100 Mile House RCMP have also hired a new jail guard and is looking to hire and train another one. While this isn't a full-time job, Medernech said it costs less than taking any prisoners up to Williams Lake.
Policing their jurisdiction remains a challenge Medernech said, especially with a growing population spread out over a wide geographic area. To help take the pressure off them, Medernech noted they received $10,000 from civil forfeiture and have purchased a new drone that can be used for a "multitude of things."
"We've used it for searching for missing people, car crashes and execution authorizations of warrants, just to get a look at different properties but only when we're authorized," Medernech assured council.
He noted that the body cams themselves are rented and cost $3,000 each with the total cost to outfit the detachment sitting around $50,000. Medernech did note, however, that they are top-of-the-line cameras, which is good.
In 2024 Medernech said he and the other officers were able to catch up on both general and specialized training. Going forward he intends to keep up that standard. They were also able to more regularly appear at local schools providing students a face and a name to attach to law enforcement.
"No negative interactions to date and it's been nothing but a success," Medernech said.
When asked by Coun. Marty Norgren if the RCMP responds to many calls at Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School, Medernech said they respond to no more calls at PSO than any other high school he has interacted with during his service.
A new program introduced in 2024 province-wide was the Repeat Violent Offender Program which aims to help reintegrate repeat offenders into society, but also holds them to a higher standard if they re-offend. Medernech said while the program has seen success around B.C., he does think the requirement someone needs to be convicted of a crime to enter it is flawed.
"Unfortunately, we can have people who sit in our court systems for years and get up to 10, 20 or 30 charges in that time and they're not convinced so they can't be added to that program," Medernech explained. "I don't agree with some things, but it is good overall and I think it's going in the right direction."
For local repeat offenders, Medernech said the RCMP have chosen to take a firm stance and make sure all charges go ahead to court. He added if they can give Crown prosecutors all the information they have then it is up to them to decide if cases move forward.
"It's shown great success as of late. We've had three individuals who are essentially a nexus to crime. Every community has a couple of individuals like that and they have gone to jail and we've seen our calls decrease substantially," Medernech said.
Calls RCMP responded to went from 4,100 in 2023 to 4,700 in 2024, an increase of roughly 600. While Medernech acknowledges this sounds like a lot, he noted that once he took over as acting commander he encouraged all the officers to document every interaction they have.
"I want documentation for everything. So a large part of those 600 calls is just us documenting what we were doing already. It's somebody coming to the front counter, asking questions about something and just putting that to paper."
Following his report 100 Mile House Mayor Maureen Pinkney thanked Medernech for the work he and his fellow officers do for the community. She also noted she appreciates them patrolling Centennial Park more often to prevent vandalism.
"We definitely appreciate all that you do," Pinkney said.
