Officially today is the last day of the integrated Osoyoos/Oliver RCMP sub regional detachment.

Effective Friday the two detachments are separated each with their own commander.

See earlier story

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.

Harrington 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.

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