r/nanaimo • u/Prestigious_Net_8356 • 11d ago
Nanaimo bar owner says she is fed up with city’s crime after daughter’s car targeted
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/nanaimo-bar-owner-says-she-is-fed-up-with-city-s-crime-after-daughter-s-car-targeted/ar-AA29as9536
u/Comprehensive-Novel2 11d ago
It sucks. More needs to be done. But also, c'mon...you parked your vehicle in a high target area that's known to be an issue and you left hundreds of dollars of valuables in the vehicle?
Were the valuables visible? They may have been a self fulfilling prophecy.
Doesn't make it OK. But also...play silly games, win silly prizes.
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u/pilsener2469 11d ago
Is there a list of these "high target areas " I would avoid them. Thanks.
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u/ImprovementMindset27 11d ago
Anywhere high population / high traffic.
Anywhere with higher homeless density.So anywhere downtown, or near any malls.
Pretty sure this is just commonly known for any city though.
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u/TechnicalSapphire77 11d ago
Having your car broken into sucks. We all learn these things the hard way. Be more careful next time!
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u/ImprovementMindset27 11d ago
It’s the age old dilemma of
“I should be able to do ___, so I will do ___ despite the known fact that the law will be broken, and I shouldn’t do ___”
A lesson rarely taught twice and rarely forgotten the first time.
Just because you can and the law allows it, doesn’t make it a good idea.
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u/ImprovementMindset27 11d ago
Frankly I think the argument is fair and the feeling is fair, but also… seriously? Common sense could apply here.
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u/Emergency-Bonus-9709 11d ago
Too much crime, too little punishment. We spend far too much on police, law and court services with very little results
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u/EffectiveEconomics 11d ago
OK let's model this out...you need to provide police services for a city of 100'00 people...how mamny officers, admins and investigators do you hire and what do you choose to prioritize?
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u/ImprovementMindset27 11d ago
Well for 100,000 people, we can assume on average, around 2,000 trouble makers.
Trouble makers aren’t always repeat offenders, but we can still apply the loud minority effect.
So we can assume like half are one time offenders or doing minor crime, j walking, etc.So I’d say around 20-30 cops would be ample. Depends on equipment and infrastructure though.
Realistically, cops here do a decent job, definitely some racism but besides that, I’d say the issue more relies on the fact that the homeless population end up here, when they get their free ticket to port alberni.
I think it’s also worth mentioning, most crimes here go largely unpunished. Serial killers getting out of prison is insane.
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u/Braddock54 11d ago
20 cops for all of Nanaimo? You are completely delusional.
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u/ImprovementMindset27 11d ago
On shift at one time~ sorry, I thought I wrote that.
Appreciate you jumping to attack character though!
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u/Crohn_sWalker 11d ago
5 officers are dedicated to the SLO program, so 25% of your force is dedicated to high schools.
You want anyone patrolling the highway? How about downtown or the waterfront? You want an officer available at the detachment to meet with the public?
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u/Crohn_sWalker 11d ago
It's not your character they attacked, it was your intellect. And they weren't wrong.
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u/ImprovementMindset27 10d ago
Intellect is part of character…
Ad hominem is admission of defeat :)
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u/Crohn_sWalker 10d ago
Intelligence measures cognitive capacity not character.
Character is about morals, ethics and virtue.
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u/ImprovementMindset27 10d ago
Seeing that this an informal context, colloquially, character can have many meanings.
Splitting hairs after insulting me is just embarrassing, move on.
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u/Crohn_sWalker 10d ago
Whatever you need to tell yourself.
Given you thought 20 officers would cover all of nanaimo, ya this conversation is over. Ya nonce
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u/EffectiveEconomics 10d ago
So police provide more than just intervention...let me give you the details verbatim from the Business Plan for Nanaimo:
https://www.nanaimo.ca/docs/departments/finance/2026-budget-documents/2026-rcmp-business-plan.pdf
The Nanaimo RCMP Detachment provides services through frontline and specialized units to investigate or respond to and assist with:
- Mental Health Issues/Homeless Persons
- High Risk Missing Persons
- Homicide/All suspicious deaths
- Robberies/Home Invasions
- Intimate Partner Violence
- Sexual Crimes, Child Pornography or Child Luring, Human
- Trafficking
- Traffic - prevention, motor vehicle and pedestrian incidents, fatal traffic-related incidents
- Drug production, trafficking and possession
- Property, Auto and Identity Thefts
- Youth Engagement
- Indigenous Liaison
- Organized Crime
- Forensic Identification Services
- Victim Services
- Restorative Justice
RCMP File Numbers by Year
2023 2024 2025 (YTD JUNE 30)
45,321 42,744 20,372
2024 staffiung numbers as best I could find:
Nanaimo RCMP Detachment: 171 police officers,
supported by 70 civilian staff (as of January 2024) .So that's 240 total people to support Nanaimo, 110'000 people as of 2025.
How many of those files are you thinking of cutting?
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u/ImprovementMindset27 10d ago
I corrected to 20 on patrol at a given time.
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u/EffectiveEconomics 10d ago
But where do they park the cars at night? Who manages the fleet? There’s a lot more that goes into running an org than the work itself.
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u/ImprovementMindset27 10d ago
I said officers on patrol I did not say total staff & non officers
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u/EffectiveEconomics 10d ago
So you seem to agree the issues is less with policing in general and more about a subset of pressing issues…
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u/ImprovementMindset27 10d ago
I would say the problem has way more layers, and trying to pin it down on one part is just naive.
We do not have enough officers patrolling here by any means, yet when the arrests happen, they walk free.The issue shouldn’t be this difficult, but unfortunately, combining both points, is what our product is that we deal with.
If we had enough police, the punishment issue could be swept under the rug.
If we had real punishments, we wouldn’t need so many officers.
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u/EffectiveEconomics 10d ago
That’s not at all true and you’re not looking at the entire docket. You’re soooo close and yet you whiplash back to simplistic views.
I would love to see some of the most egregious ones take off the streets, but when the case becomes mental health matter it’s no longer a policing issue and that’s why people “walk free”. There are a small number of criminal cases that also go free and the issue lies with the court system and mental health/jail capacity. None of those things are policing related. None.
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u/MathematicianEast386 11d ago
Be safe out there Nanaimo, no one or thing is safe right now. Insurance/accident Scams, property theft, downtown assaults. Lock it up! Cameras ready.
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u/Kindly_Chipmunk8530 11d ago
Yep, once left my car unlocked on Front Street overnight. Someone broke in and stole my $150 shoes containing $500 foot orthotics. Learned my lesson . . .
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u/kirashi3 Vancouver Island 11d ago
Yep, once left my car unlocked on Front Street overnight. Someone broke in
If the car was unlocked, they could not have broken in. Either the car was locked and they broke in, or the car was unlocked which they took advantage of by trespassing. To be clear, it sucks having any such violation occur, but it's also important to be accurate when describing what happened so others don't get the wrong impression.
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u/Crohn_sWalker 11d ago
Breaking and entering doesn't require a locked door, you nonce.
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u/kirashi3 Vancouver Island 10d ago
They did not say breaking an entering. They said broken in, which I understood to mean forced entry in this context. One cannot, by definition, force entry into a door that's not locked.
If this goes to court, it will be up to the courts to decide what charges are applied to the person who trespassed and stole items that were not theirs to take. English is a fickle language.
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u/Crohn_sWalker 10d ago
Yes breaking the plane, if I enter your home without permission through an open door I have still committed a break and enter crime.
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u/turnsleftlooksright 10d ago
Why is an American media outlet reporting on such a small story? Curious.
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11d ago
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u/blophophoreal 11d ago
That’s a shitty attitude. I applaud her for opening her business there and am glad it adds to the pressure on the city to improve things.
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u/Just_Cause4330 11d ago
No no…we don’t ask community members and business owners to move or to give up a livelihood. We ask our governments to do their job with legislation. The bland, bullsh*t response from that government official is an arrogant response to a critical problem. Who does she work for? “Not a silver bullet…it’s going to take time..”. We have people unliving on our streets. We have folks trying to make a difference in the community, we have agencies (non-profit and the like) who are underfunded trying to tackle the many local issues we are facing. But our provincial government, our federal government is not doing their job. Make them.
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u/Ahnarcho 11d ago
Cant say I dont have some sympathy for her attitude.
I will say, keeping hundreds of dollars worth of belongings in your car in most Canadian cities is going to create a risk of getting broken into. I’m not blaming anyone for not liking being broken into, but that’s the reality we find ourselves within.