Date: Wednesday, October 6, 2021
Victoria, BC – Seven VicPD officers assigned to three integrated units have been redeployed to VicPD’s Patrol Division as part of ongoing efforts to address continuing shortfalls in our front-line response capability.
VIDEO – Chief Del Manak Announces The Redeployment of Seven Officers
To The Patrol Division From Integrated Units
A total of seven VicPD officers assigned to the Capital Regional District Integrated Road Safety Unit (CRD-IRSU), the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit-BC (CFSEU-BC), and the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) will be redeployed to our Patrol Division. Once these changes take effect on November 7th, VicPD will have no officers remaining with those integrated units.
Officer injuries, both physical and psychological, combined with the volume, complexity and severity of calls have placed a strain on the Patrol Division that is neither acceptable nor sustainable. This redeployment of officers to VicPD’s Patrol Division is intended to better meet public expectations regarding VicPD’s ability to respond to calls for service.
“When citizens call for help, they expect that an officer will arrive to help them quickly,” Chief Constable Del Manak said. “Without this change and further changes, VicPD cannot maintain that basic level of service. These integrated units do important work, keeping our roads safe, investigating and disrupting organized crime groups, and monitoring and investigating national security threats. We do not take the decision to redeploy these officers lightly, but we have to prioritize for our community.”
Of VicPD’s total strength of 249 officers, 39 are currently unable to work in a call-response capacity for a variety of reasons, including physical and psychological injuries. An additional 17 officers are non-deployable as they undertake various stages of recruit training.
Staffing shortfalls have created major challenges in ensuring adequate deployment of frontline resources to respond to calls from our community. Recent measures to address frontline resource shortfalls include the 2018 reassignment of six officers – including our three school liaison officers, an intelligence officer, our reserve program officer and a beat officer – to our Patrol Division, and the 2019 disbandment of VicPD’s Crime Reduction Unit (CRU).
VicPD is always evaluating how to strengthen our response to community needs. Therefore, future organizational changes may occur in an effort to address the demands on available resources. A review of these seven transfers will take place over the next year to assess if staffing resources allow for these assignments to be restored.
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