Kamloops' new chief of police to focus on crime reduction, community safety

Photo: RCMP

Supt. Jeff Pelley began his new role with the Kamloops RCMP Detachment on Wednesday.

With decades of leadership and frontline policing experience under his belt — including work as a constable in Kamloops — the city’s new police chief says he looks forward to working on strategies to reduce crime and improve community safety.

Supt. Jeff Pelley, who served as a constable in Kamloops early in his 23-year career, returned to the Tournament Capital in April 2021 to work as an operations officer for the local detachment.

Pelley was named the new officer in charge in early October. He is taking over from Syd Lecky, who is leaving Kamloops after four years as superintendent to work as an RCMP commander in the Northwest Territories.

Pelley sat down for an interview with Castanet Kamloops on Wednesday, his first official day on the job.

“It's an honour and a privilege to come back to Kamloops,” Pelley said.

“It was also an honour to be selected to be the new officer-in-charge or superintendent and really be entrenched in the community and the long-term investment here.”

Pelley said he grew up in the Ashcroft and Cache Creek area and attended the University College of the Cariboo — now Thompson Rivers University — before joining the RCMP in 1999.

His first posting as a Mountie was in Prince Rupert, after which he worked as a frontline constable in Kamloops from 2003 until 2006.

“While I was in Kamloops I was in general duty and I was in serious crime," Pelley said.

"At other detachments, I worked in a drug investigation unit, as well as [the] general investigation section in a smaller detachment, focusing on some localized gangs and organized crime."

Pelley has also worked in Kelowna, 100 Mile House, New Hazelton and Williams Lake, accumulating leadership experience over several detachments.

Pelley said he was also part of developing a regional crime reduction unit in the Cariboo Chilcotin, a team that policed high-risk offenders in multiple communities.

Pelley, who mentioned he still attends the occasional call along with Kamloops frontline officers, said his career experiences have given him “a complete respect” for the challenges and duties RCMP members undertake daily.

He said he is a “firm believer” in crime reduction strategies through enforcement, but also believes in examining the root issues of crime.

“Part of my leadership style with that is really having a comprehensive program for enforcement strategies in those violent offenders, or those that are involved in property crime, for full accountability while exploring additional avenues to ensure that offenders are compliant with bail conditions [and] sentences,” Pelley said.

Pelley said one of the local detachment’s biggest strengths lies in its officers.

“They know the offenders, they know the areas and they know where they have to focus — not only on the calls for service, but for those repeat offenders," he said.

"I see some exceptional work that happens day to day with respect to proactive policing within the norm of our general duty calls for service."

Pelley said the detachment has strong specialized divisions, including its targeted enforcement and serious crimes units, and noted community partnerships are “exceptional.”

He said he would like to build the detachment’s offender management program and its newly reestablished crime reduction unit — which is now operational with two constables and one corporal — and hopes to expand the Car 40 program in Kamloops.

Pelley said the crime reduction unit will help the detachment “provide that constant oversight of high risk offenders."

“We're looking at strategies also, how we can show that the public interest is being compromised by certain offenders being released, collating a number of investigations, being strategic, working with our Crown counsel as well as our community corrections and probation with respect to accountability to these high risk offenders,” Pelley said.

Pelley said his biggest hurdles as superintendent will be dealing with repeat offenders and overseeing responses to the city's social issues and criminal issues, which he notes are “two different things.”

He said the RCMP needs to be a collaborative partner with other groups and agencies working on strategies to tackle social issues such as mental health, addiction and homelessness.

“We're going to work with our partners on some of these areas that involve social issues, because some of these individuals escalate to committing criminal acts,” Pelley said.

“We have a number of vulnerable individuals throughout the city or a location, and then we do have syndicates of criminal activity embedded within there, and how we can focus on that crime reduction, but also work with our partners to focus on the individuals that need assistance with respect to mental health or addictions or a combination of [those] are going to be our challenges.”

Pelley said he looks forward to focusing on accountability for offenders and community safety.

“I look forward to continuing to focus on our policing strategies and our detachment strategies, working with the municipal strategies and how we can make our community more safe and accountability to those that commit criminal offences,” Pelley said.