i ce cee mente rote ‘ing The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - AS errace a Local RCMP works to keep city safe in time of major crimes and fewer officers Stories and photos by Margaret Speirs 9? JUST WHEN several officers are on medical or maternity and | parental leave? Terrace RCMP officers found themselves in the midst of a major crime sprec. “We just had a very busy time with some major events,” , ‘ said Staff Sgt. Eric Stubbs, referring to last fall’s disappear- ance. of Tamara Chipman, January’s armed robbery at the _ Safeway Gas Bar and February’ s tiple shooting at the Cedar Place Apartments. ~ Fi These cases required a lot of work and manpower that , “taxed the detachment due to the absence of several officers. “Tt was a busy few months and we’re still cleaning up and ” working ona lot of those files,” Stubbs said, CEDAR PLACE apartments at 4931 Walsh Ave. behind the hedge above, sees its share of trouble. Police responded to more than 200 calls * Tamara Chipman, 22, was last seen hitchhiking eastbound on Hwy16 near Prince Ru- pert’s industrial park around 4:30 p.m. Sept. 21, 2005. Chipman’ s family and friends launch a search for her from Prince Rupert to Terrace. She is still missing. e Robin Wayne Rody, 36, steals a truck from Ken’s Marine and robs the Safeway Gas Bar clerk of $69 around 5 p.m. Jan. 25, 2006. Police spot the vehicle at the Cedar Place Apart- ment building around 7:30 p.m. and follow him as he leaves. A chase ensues and police ap- . 4 prehend him after firing shots.to stop him from running over two officers. Rody pleads guilty and is convicted of robbery and flight from a police officer in Terrace Provincial Court Feb. 21. He is sentenced to two years jail time in a federal penitentiary. -¢ Police respond to a complaint of shots being fired at the Cedar Place Apartments just af- ter 2:30 a.m. Feb. 7, 2006. Three people suffer gunshot wounds and are sent to hospital here. One is later airlifted to hospital i in Vancouver. All have since been released from hospital. | te .. there last year, compared to only 11 calls from the apartment buildings next door at 4934 and 4936 Davis St., to the right of the photo, during _ the same time period. The three bulidings are located across the street from the Skeena Junior Secondary School. MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO . “ number’ of times last. year, according: to od «, four times each week.: i " tance under the Mental Health Act, and other “ Criminal Code offences. calls from two apartment buildings. next door at 4934 and 4936 Davis St., during the ‘Criminal central : Building draws troublesome occupants’. ' TERRACE RCMP officers were called to _ the Cedar Place Apartments, a whopping "police records. — _ Police received 264 calls from Cedar Place Apartments,. located at. 4931 Walsh - Ave, between January 2005 and the end of February 2006. That’s an average of about _ the peace. These calls reported disturbances, noise complaints, . assaults, thefts, people being ., drunk i in. ‘public, probation. violations, break ““and ‘enters, drugs, threats, mischief, assis- In comparison, police only received 11 same time period, according to Staff Sgt.. Eric Stubbs. - | | “In general, we don’t have too many : problems with these two complexes,” he. . said, : ‘adding the calls from the Davis St.’ _apartment dwellers were mostly to. 0_report ; thefts, lost and found items, and d disturbing “There are a number of people at the. Davis Street apartments that cause us no _problems whatsoever,” he said, adding that a number of tenants are involved in the: drug is: trade and have substance abuse problems... ; “Clearly, the police would like to see the landlord and apartment manager enforce a Stricter set of tenant rules to ensure the safe- _ ty of all people in the building as well as the surrounding neighborhood,” he said. Details of ~ shooting still forthcoming, - 7 police say — A SHOOTING that sent three people to hospital i in February is still under investigation, police say. Terrace RCMP Constable Rochelle Patenaude said all three people-have.been released from hospital: - -tails two or-three: weeks after: the crime;° Patenaude- - said all the required information for a thorough inves- tigation was taking longer’io acquire than police had hoped. Police responded to a complaint of shots being fired , at the Cedar Place Apartments at 4931 Walsh Ave. in’ - the early morning hours of Feb. 7. - THIS CAR is parked in-the lot of the Cedar Place apartment building, where police -found the armed robber who held up a clerk at the Safeway Gas Bar in January. ‘Police arrested the perpetrator after a car chase that ended with shots fired and a police dog assisting with the apprehension of the 36-year-old man, who's now — ‘serving time in a federal jail. Three people went to hospital after suffering gunshot - _; wounds. here in February. All three have since been released from hospital. Police. . “are stili investigating the case. Taking leave means more work for everybody else Three people, all of whom were known to police, . suffered gunshot wounds. Unconfirmed reports indicated the victims to in- clude a man believed to be in his 60s who was shot _ - in the leg, a younger man reportedly shot in the face: and a woman. - , aa River boat needed LOCAL RCMP have no river boat and therefore can’t - enforce speed limits on the rivers, even though. waterways _ are under its jurisdiction, said Stubbs. _ “We don’t have a police boat so we rely on water rescue or the [conservation officers] or the DFO,” Stubbs said in | . referring to volunteers and provincial wildlife and federal ~ fisheries officers. | The local detachment did at one. time have a police boat H but it was not kept due to its cost and lack of use, Stubbs ' believes. Officers have to be trained to pilot the boat as they - - would often be running the river in treacherous river condi- tions, but Stubbs believes a boat i is needed. ' Cops play _ ‘bait and switch’ with robbers POLICE MAY soon employ a ‘bait and switch’ tactic to catch thieves who habitually steal snowmobiles and other recreational equipment. Staff Sgt. Eric Stubbs told a recent: city council meeting the RCMP was looking into bringing the suc- céssful Lower Mainland bait.car program up here.- ~ Lower Mainland municipal police forces and the’ ol sAlthough-police Said: they !would release niore’ det Be) bere “POLICE have to make due «with fewer officers when one or more is out on maternity or medical leave. _ Unlike most employers, the RCMP does not have a _ system in place to provide ‘a replacement officer when | / another is off for maternity ‘or parental leave or for med-., -ical reasons. , . In Terrace in “months, that’s shortage of officers at a time ‘when several major crimes _occurred, putting a strain on the remaining officers and on the detachment. “Every detachment in the RCMP deals with this man- power issue,” Stubbs said. ‘While on leave, the of- ‘ficer receives pay that’s a combination of unemploy- recent . meant a, ment insurance and money to top itup toa ‘percentage of regular pay, Stubbs said. At the same time as the ‘detachment coped with few- er officers, all but one top level position turned over. Three of the four watch commanders transferred out of the detachment or moved up toa new position in the last year. i Kevin Schur went to Os- oyoos, Lauren Weir trans- ferred to Prince George and GIS corporal Bill Casault _moved to become the head of the: major crimes unit, followed by a promotion to _ sergeant. Corporal Brendan McK- enna remains in his position as watch commander. © Schur was replaced by Mike Dame, Weir's replace- ment was Sid Lecky and | John Redlich replaced Casa- ult as watch commander. Casault’s replacement in the. major crimes unit will be Carlos Tettolowski, who will be arriving shortly from Sooke, which is near Victo- ria. Set. Scott Lovell trans- ferred to Prince George at the end of last November. - . Stubbs ‘arrived here last - May from the Queen Char- lotte Islands to replace the outgoing Jas Basi, who transferred to Surrey. Inspector Marlin De- grand, who took a job in Edmonton late last year will ‘be replaced by Inspector Fenson from Dawson Creek, who’s due here in June. RCMP started the bait car program in 2002 to resporid ‘to the high incidence of auto theft. Police place a bait car on the street and when a thief climbs in, a tracking system is triggered that allows police to follow the vehicle via global positioning. Police say they’ve seen a 15 per cent decrease in auto thefts across the Lower Mainland in the past year _thanks to the bait cars. Tim Shields of the Integrated Municipal-Provincial _ Auto Crime Team, a.22-member group based in Sur- rey, said the bait car program is also used throughout the Okanagan, Kamloops and Prince George and will be available to other places with an ongoing auto theft problem. ; “Jt’s been working very well,” he said May. 5. “{Since] the program launched in Kelowna in January, there’s been a 40 per cent decline in auto theft. It’s exceeded our expectations.” The program has expanded to include bait ATVS, snowmobiles and personal watercraft. Stubbs would not comment as to how many bait ve- hicles would be used here or when the program would Start. eee CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD The Mail Bag | Hats off to civil servants Dear Sir: | I’ve been reading the recent letters criticizing and then praising the RCMP. It is so nice to hear someone come out publicly and throw roses instead of brick bats at the local constabulary. As a former tnember of’both the Terrace and Kitimat communities I always had nothing but the highest of praise for the RCMP. When I did perceive a problem with a member then I used the proper protocol to deal with the conflict. Citing it in the local paper would have been very . low on my list. Please try to think before you toss your next brick: would you be willing to respond to a domestic disturbance ° not knowing if there are any weapons in the home, or go on a drug bust’ knowing there are’ weapons? These men - -and women literally put their lives on the line every call _ they go on, and it is certainly’ not for the massive amount of money they are paid. If you really think about. the great. percent of public » servants and what.their job entail, theirs is:more a calling ' than a profession. Even those in jobs in the hospital such - as janitors, kitchen workers, laundry workers and house- _ keepers are put at risk daily come in contact with Hep C, AIDS, and any other highly infectious disease as well as_ physical violence from patients:: So, may I suggest the next time you § see a constable, firefighter, paramedic, street cleaner, or any healthcare worker striving to do the best job they can, stop and think, “That is my tax dollar. at work.” Maybe. even compare. ‘ their wages to what is paid to the elected in Victoria. and” Ottawa. Which is giving you the better value for your! hard — earned dollar? , , Margie Fortune, Quispamss, New Brunswick — - Good Samaritan © . Dear + Sir: ; On behalf of my husband and myself, I would like to. . thank, through your paper a gentleman who stopped to help us out of our Tahoe on Monday, March 13, 2006. " The day we left Prince Rupert, it was bright and sunny. When we started our trip home from my tests at the Ter- . race hospital, we ran into a bit of snow. We did seca plow. truck by Tyee, so I figured, the roads were plowed. Not, ' so. The way the snow was coming down and the vehicle in front of us going up the plowed (right hand side of the _ summit) it was lucky no one was coming down.’ Just by the shoe tree and thank God. we were not going fast, our. vehicle got caught up in the heavy wet snow, we managed to get out of the first spin and then ran out of road. We never got ‘the gentleman’s name who helped us... We do know he was from Terrace and he was catching the ferry to the Queen Charlottes and was driving a truck with a revolving light on it. ee We told him to go on and catch the ferry, but to. no’ avail, he stayed with us. To this: gentleman I cannot say enough to thank you. To his employer, you have'a most caring employee. * Charlene and Robert Duncan. Prince Rupert, B.C. tes seogghys ere nt vyyge ryt i He st a aaite oe Gon Praghyrouy Tax’ moriey well spent? Dear Sir: It wasn’t.a surprise to mé when the Terrace Lumber ~ Company (TLC) shut’down its mill and log yard opera- - tions for two weeks the first time and then extended it to a full month. It would, be even less of a surprise if they | extended the shutdown indefinitely. After all, how could ‘the owners of TLC succeed where New Skeena failed, especially when they’re paying higher tariffs than New Skeena was to trade with the United States? As a taxpayer, I have some questions about TLC which I would like answered. Is TLC paying the city of. Terrace | taxes? How much interest is being charged on the loan . the city provided? What is the specific collateral TLC pro-- vided for the loari received by the city of Terrace? How much of the loan has been paid off? . © * If I owned a mill in Terrace, I'd be mighty ar angry ‘that the, city is. willing to use the taxes I. pay to finance my. competition. If l owned a home in Terrace, I’d be mighty - angry how the city was raising residential taxes to pay for. pie in the sky like TLC, secretive million dollar purchases |‘, of dilapidated cat shelters, and throwing countless thou. -. Lo sands of dollars away “studying” a multiplex. ooo. Lisa ‘Larous, Terrace, F B.C. We welcome all Dear Sir: | Iam. trying very hard not to pass judgement on are- - . cent writer to this paper who wanted new immigrants to ‘Canada to obey Canadian rules, and by their i interpretation’ leave ‘teligious symbols out of schools, specifically’ “dag- gers,” but I feel compelled to respond: ~ According to the supreme rulebook of Canada, other- wise known as the Charter of Rights. and Freedoms, we (Canadians) are entitled freedom to practise our religion. This méans that people in Canada are entitled to practise” their religious rights and in some cases this means. wear- « ing of certain ceremonial items if they so choose. = ‘I'm not Christian but I admire people who wear across a asa symbol of their faith and I am glad I live in a country wear one can celebrate and outwardly honour their chosen religion. , I welcome stars. of David, turbans, céremonial dag gers (actually known as a kirpan) and many other reli- gious symbols since they illustrate our diverse culture and pe country. To members of the Sikh community in Terrace and surrounding areas who may have been hurt by D.L:. _ Bulleid’s comment, please know there are people |] like my- » self who- welcome what you bring to Canada and enjoy learning about your values and culture. ‘To D. L. Bulleid, [ did not know very much about Sikh culture until 1 moved to Terrace but find the Sikh com- — munity very welcoming and interested in Sharing their ‘culture. I am sure if.you wanted to learn more about the © kirpan and their religious beliefs you would be most wel- ° come. A simple inquiry would yield a very worthwhile - learning experience. I would be happy to help j you arrange such a visit if you are interested. Greer Kaiser, Terrace, B. Cc. ‘About the Mail Bag The Terrace Standard welcomes letters. Our address - is 3210 Clinton St., Terrace, B.C. V8G 5R2. You can fax us at 250-638-8432 or e-mail us at newsroom@ » terracestandard.com. No attachments, please. Name, address _and phone number required for verification. n v