Report: Child exploitation, robberies on the rise in Kelowna

A report outlining crime statistics from 2022 will be presented to Kelowna city council on Monday.

The report notes general crime saw a return to pre-pandemic levels in 2022.

Overall calls for service last year were down six per cent, however, Kelowna’s downtown area saw an uptick in calls for service by 12.6 per cent.

One disturbing finding in the report was noted by the RCMP’s Integrated Child Exploitation Unit (ICE), which revealed that nationwide, possessing and accessing child sexual abuse material is up 21 per cent and up 67 per cent in Kelowna.

ICE dealt with 70 files last year, compared to 42 in 2021 and 30 in 2020.

Last month, Kelowna RCMP confirmed these crimes are on the rise in the city and as a result, created a dedicated investigative team of police officers called the Internet Child Exploitation Unit.

According to RCMP, the Kelowna ICE Unit’s goals are to ensure children are not being abused, remove images from the internet and successfully prosecute those who access, produce, and traffic the material.

Other notable trends in 2022 include robberies and business break-and-enters increased from a 2021 baseline.

Robberies, being one of the most concerning to the community and the Kelowna RCMP, were up 43 per cent last year, which is an increase of 33 cases compared to the previous year.

Kelowna experienced a 26 per cent rise in business break-and-enters. In response to the elevated numbers, last August, RCMP began targeted enforcement of priority repeat offenders and, according to the report, since then there has been a reduction in these types of crimes.

by Global News