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New Richmond councillor calls for more authority for bylaw officers

Former solicitor general and newly elected city councillor Kash Heed expects 'pushback' from police on his idea to create a 'tiered' community safety model.
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Kash Heed, who was solicitor-general under the BC Liberals, was recently elected to Richmond city council.

Giving bylaw officers more authority, creating community safety officers and getting fire fighters to take the lead on emergency preparedness – these are some of the changes newly elected Richmond city councillor Kash Heed would like to see in Richmond.

These changes would help create a "tiered" system of “protective services” for the city, Heed told the Richmond News, instead of always relying on the most expensive service, namely, the RCMP.

Making bylaw officers into peace officers is what Heed sees as the first step into creating this tiered model.

As peace officers, bylaw officers could deal with more authority on the spot.

“We can’t keep adding and adding police officers to the taxpayer,” Heed said.

Dealing with illegal short-term rentals is an example of where bylaw officers could exert more authority if they were peace officers, Heed said.

Currently, bylaw officers can only issue municipal tickets, but as peace officers, they could ensure compliance to rules, regulations and bylaws and issue tickets for non-compliance, something currently RCMP have to be called in to do.

It’s also a serious offence to assault a peace officer and can result in jail time. This would better protect bylaw officers and act as a deterrent if someone lashes out while they’re doing their job, Heed added.

Peace officers don’t investigate crimes or lay charges, but they can enforce provincial statues or municipal bylaws. They can also give tickets, but then police officers are called to investigate and possibly recommend criminal charges.

At this week’s community safety meeting, Heed, who is a retired police officer and used to the province’s solicitor general, asked city staff to look into the feasibility of making bylaw officers into peace officers, something that was supported by the whole committee.

Heed said he was surprised to learn bylaw officers in Richmond weren’t peace officers, unlike many other municipalities in Metro Vancouver.

Heed said he understood, from his discussions with city management, this was something decided by the previous city administration.

At the same meeting, Heed put forward a motion to explore whether community safety offices could have integrated protective services including Richmond Fire-Rescue, emergency preparedness, bylaw officers and police, “all of those stakeholders that have a good approach to providing safety for our community.”

The next step would be to add community safety officers, who could respond to “cold calls,” such as a theft or burglary where the suspect has already left the scene, Heed told the News.

He cited the example of Vancouver where community safety officers wear a uniform, drive a marked car, receive self-defence training and undergo physical aptitude tests.

They are, however, unarmed but help regular patrol officers with lower-risk tasks such taking statements, perimeter security at police incidents and giving support at major events and emergencies.

Giving more authority to bylaw officers and creating community safety officers wouldn’t take away from police officers, although Heed said he expects some “pushback” from the RCMP. However, he said protective services needs to move away from being a siloed service.

Heed said he envisioned community policing stations having all levels of service working out of them, including bylaws, fire-rescue and emergency preparedness, rather than being “uninviting” gated buildings, like the one at Gilbert Road and Granville Avenue.

“Of course, police will be an integral part of it, but they won’t be standalone,” Heed said.

As for emergency preparedness, Heed believes Richmond Fire-Rescue could play a "premier" role in preparing neighbourhoods for various emergencies.

He sees this as a catalyst to engaging neighbourhoods of Richmond.

“I would like to see fire fighters take a lead on emergency preparedness,” he said.