What did a participant, police officers and a town councillor think after the town hall meeting with the RCMP?
After the May 9 event, Hope RCMP detachment commander Staff Sgt. Karol Rehdner said he recognized that the event was held on election night, but found the event useful.
“It is a good bilateral communication and I found it to be a very positive experience and something worthwhile to follow up to do it again,” said Rehdner. This is Rehdner’s first town hall meeting.
Rehdner said he heard the feedback from residents and hopes to improve communication with townspeople through multiple mediums including social media and the newspaper.
“If there is a change I can foresee, it’d be more in communication so that more is made available to the community of things we can tell them, obviously,” said Rehdner.
Asked whether Rehdner would do more frequent town halls, which currently is set at once per year, Rehdner said he will review it with Upper Fraser Valley Regional Detachment overall-in-charge Superintendent Deanne Burleigh to determine whether they will change the frequency.
“I’d like to see more community engagement and maybe, obviously, being better at selection of dates,” said Rehdner.
That evening was election day, hence Rehdner’s comments. However, according to talk between a participant and Burleigh, the turnout was much bigger than previous town halls.
Burleigh said the event allows her to learn about the issues surrounding Hope and where to prioritize policing efforts. She said both herself and Rehnder will review the issues such as “problem properties,” traffic issues and panhandling. “Problem properties” is defined as houses where illegal acts happen, such as drug sales.
“We’ll take a look at more of a holistic approach — what other resources can we draw on in the community to work at reducing calls for service and the actual problems in the community,” said Burleigh.
Burleigh added that town halls present “one of the more effective ways of communicating with the community because it’s an interaction.”
Coun. Heather Stewin, who sat through the whole meeting, said the information gathered there can help her as councillor.
“The more information you have the more you can balance out the pros and the cons,” said Stewin.
Stewin said the biggest concern she gathered were thefts and problem properties.
For resident Val Schepannek, attending the meeting made her feel that crime in Hope is “better than I thought it was.’
She said the town hall gave people a place to vent about the vandalism, theft and other problems in Hope.
“I hear a lot of people say, ‘Police don’t do anything,’ they do, they always do,” said Schepannek. “But it was nice to know the police want our help and I think this was a good venue for them to get that idea across to us.”