In 2002 the Osoyoos and Oliver police stations were joined in a sub-regional detachment. Now ten years later the two areas are being split but local area commander Sgt. Ken Harrington says the public will not notice much difference as it is an internal changeover.

The numbers work this way: Osoyoos detachment has 6 constables on the road with 1 Sergeant and 1 Corporal.
In Oliver 11 officers work out of the detachment: 7 constables on the road with 1 Sergeant and 1 Corporal along with an aboriginal peace officer and a member of the General Investigation Section. The latter two persons are not counted in the Oliver numbers and report to a different commander.

Harringston says it will allow officers to patrol their own jurisdictions without as much travel back and forth from both detachments. It will allow for summer/winter extra funding to be used in the Oliver area including work at Mt. Baldy and along the river and parks systems in Oliver.

Harrington says having an aboriginal officer stationed at Oliver helps as the local detachment has the Osoyoos Indian Band within its jurisdiction and a lot of PR is accomplished because of this posting.

He also likes the fact that GIS has an officer here as it allows one local constable to work alongside giving officers different experiences  and a diversion from regular road work.

On the subject of extra people in the Oliver area for picking fruit and vegetables, Harrington says he has been actively involved with talking with farm labourers and says most if not all complaints have been dealt without any charges and that all of the people he has spoken to re camping, making fire, garbage etc have been productive in getting the message and cleaning up.

Both towns  (Oliver and Osoyoos) are approaching the trigger point of 5000 when the local taxpayer will have to pay more for policing.