The City of Penticton is continuing to pursue the idea of monitoring prolific offenders in the community.
The initiative was brought up briefly at the May 3 council meeting.
Coun. Judy Sentes raised the concern about the legality of monitoring people, separate from the feasibility of implementing such a program.
According to city staff, at the moment no progress or research has been done on the project, which would include consulting with other municipalities to see what they do. The original suggestion was to have an ankle bracelet type of monitoring system.
Prolific offenders can be behind a majority of crimes as Supt. Brian Hunter spoke to during his presentation to council.
According to Hunter, the five most active criminals in Penticton averaged 93 contacts with officers over a one-year period.
“Interestingly enough one of those prolifics, with over 98 contacts with us, was in jail for 128 days in that period, so a very active person,” said Hunter.
A letter sent by the BC Urban Mayors’ Caucus to the provincial government said in the 10 biggest municipalities, prolific offenders had an average of 57 contacts with police over a year.
British Columbia’s attorney general says he is poised to announce a “creative” plan to help tackle repeat offenders who cause “chaos” in communities on Thursday.
David Eby said the plan is the result of meetings with concerned municipal leaders.
The letter from the mayors included a report from Kelowna RCMP about one offender who has been the subject of 346 police files since 2016 “and received 29 convictions for property crime and assault offences. The offender is routinely released with conditions and subsequently reoffends.”
READ MORE: B.C. minister flags ‘creative’ plan for repeat offenders after being called soft on crime
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