The North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP detachment would need a lot more resources and police officers to do a more thorough job of keeping the community safe, said Staff Sergeant Ken Beard.

Beard, head of the detachment, was taking questions from members of Duncan鈥檚 city council at its meeting on Feb. 24 when he was asked by Coun. Tom Duncan about a recent drug bust in the region in which a mid-level drug dealer from Victoria was arrested with a large quantity of drugs and weapons after a traffic stop.

Duncan said he has seen people standing on street corners in the city that are not on bus routes every day at about the same time, and he expects they are waiting for their drug dealers to arrive.

鈥淚s there a way to make sure that the local police are aware of the approximate times and areas where people are standing around waiting for their dealers to come?鈥� he asked Beard.

鈥淚 know it costs a lot of money to catch someone and put them in jail, but if you can鈥檛 buy drugs here in Duncan, I think that鈥檚 a bit of a deterrent. Is there some way you could tackle this?鈥�

Beard said it鈥檚 a difficult situation to deal with on a day-to-day basis.

He said the detachment has members going to all kinds of different calls-for-service every day for a variety of different reasons, while at the same time the drug unit is actively building information and intelligence based on what they see in terms of drugs dealers in the community.

鈥淚t鈥檚 one of those things where we can try to focus on that person that鈥檚 standing on the street corner that鈥檚 buying their own personal possession, or we can try to hit the minimum to mid-level drug dealers, which is probably more productive,鈥� Beard said.

鈥淲e could spend a lot of time trying to generate some lifestyle information on who is standing on the corner, but we would need a lot more resources to try and tackle that, working from the very ground up.鈥�

Duncan pointed out that it鈥檚 not the people on the corner who he wants to see dealt with, but the drug dealers who arrive in vehicles.

Coun. Garry Bruce asked Beard if he had a wish list, what would he ask city council to do to help the detachment?

Beard said more resources, including up to 20 more police officers, would be what he would ask for.

鈥淭hat would allow us to have people down in the highway corridor 24/7, and it would give us extra resources to work on our drug unit and extra resources to work in our general investigation section unit,鈥� he said.

鈥淚 think that would certainly help and also allow us to be more proactive in terms of being present in the community.鈥�

But Beard said he realizes that bringing in up to 20 new police officers may be prohibitive for the community.

鈥淗ow do we try to get as much done as we can while supporting the community to try and stay safe?鈥� he asked. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a difficult thing to try and address when you鈥檝e got so much need all over the place.鈥�