Prince George City Council heard an update on the use of defensive tools now carried by the City’s Bylaw Officers at Wednesday’s meeting.
The report comes a year after Bylaw Officers were given defensive tools, including batons, pepper spray, and handcuffs.
Manager of Bylaw Services Charlotte Peters also noted there hasn’t been any instances of the Officers having to use those tools.
“What it did was align us with other municipalities throughout British Columbia, and it added confidence and an increased feeling of safety to the bylaw officers who are out on the street each and every day, trying to make Prince George a better place,” Peters said.
“I think not much has changed, we have employees who feel more confident, and we have a public who, they haven’t said anything negative about it.”
The next step is to standardize the policy in current training and equipment as standard and required for officers working for the City.
“Which includes the entire department, animal control officers and parking control officers receive the complete suite of training, and are required to use the tools as they were trained to use them,” she explained.
Peters said doing a yearly update would be a good idea as well if there is an incident.
Councillor Cori Ramsay put forward a motion to have the yearly report brought back to the Council table if there are any instances, which was passed.
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