A chat with New West's Chief Constable

Being a police officer was something Chief Constable Dave Jansen always wanted to do.

“[It] goes way back as long as I can remember," says Jansen. "I don’t know what really drove that other than being a young kid,” he tells New West Anchor.

Today, Jansen and his family live in New Westminster, and he’s an incredibly proud dad to his nine-year-old daughter Parker: her photos decorate much of his office. “She still loves Dad. We haven’t gotten to that stage where it’s rebellion,” Jansen says with a smile.

In this two-part piece, we’re talking to Jansen about everything from some of the challenges in local policing to the NWPD’s presence in the community.

The increase in homicides year-over-year

The latest police report shows a fairly large increase when comparing the most recent stats to the years prior: in 2021, there were five homicide files in New West. There were no recorded homicides in 2018 and 2020, while there was one in 2019. Chief Jansen says most of the homicides in 2021 included intimate partner violence, or violence where there was at least some family involvement.

“It’s something you do look at internally, and you go, ‘Is there anything that we could have done?’” says Jansen, adding that one of last year's files involved a child.

On the death of 51-year-old Robert Powshuk, the man who entered the Waves Coffee House asking for help last November, Jansen understands how much concern Powshuk’s death created for people in the city. Powshuk was attacked and bleeding, and there were customers who had seen his injuries when he'd wandered in asking for help. “A lot of questions get asked, and it leads into a bigger question about our downtown core, which wasn’t really associated to it. But I understand why the questions get asked.”

As for what can be done, Jansen is hoping for more collaborative relationships with various partners in the city, considering the cause of many of the deaths. “The city’s done a lot of work in regards to providing safe housing and alternatives to have to live in some of the situations some folks find themselves in.”

Policing in 2022

“I’ve made it quite clear, and I’ve said several times that I 100% agree that the police have been put into situations and dynamics that we’re not the best people to deal with,” says Jansen, who adds that while officers are highly trained to deal with mental health events, he’d prefer to see doctors or other mental health professionals respond. And even then, safety can be an issue.

“In July we had 44 calls for service to go up to [Royal Columbian Hospital]. Of those 44, 22 were for folks in crisis. Now, you tell me a better place that has more trained professionals and PhDs and security than Royal Columbian. But they also see that sometimes folks, unfortunately, get to a stage where there needs to be police involvement.”

Jansen is keen to see the Peer Assistant Crisis Team (PACT) taking the lead in times of crisis. “[PACT] is awesome, and we here are fully supportive of it.”

Jansen adds that the overlap between policing and the unhoused is another major challenge. “Some of the dialogue that’s occurred in regards to the homeless population, I don’t want to be involved in that. I don’t want my members to have to be, but sometimes we do get involved, and sometimes we do need to get involved. It’s rare, but a lot of times business owners or residents have no choice but to call us.”

Jansen points to the laws as they stand for the reason why officers have had to get involved during certain kinds of mental health crises. “It’s hard to take loved ones out of their moment, taking them to the hospital forcibly, if you will,” says Jansen, adding that the health system as a whole has shown a variety of failures, many of which were only amplified by COVID-19.

“I don’t have the numbers off the top, but I can tell you that we’ve had calls for pretty young kids and parents having no other outlet. But to call us, how does it make us feel going into that? I go again, back to my daughter. I want her not to be afraid of the uniform.” Jansen underscores the desire for a better health system that would prevent the police having to respond to a call at a home. “I know everyone is maxed out. Everyone is trying their best. Do I think they want it to be that way, either? No, but unfortunately, here we are, and we all have to just speak the truth.”

Is staffing an issue at NWPD?

Since the Surrey Police Service began its work, Jansen says New West has lost at least eight members to the detachment across the Pattullo. Despite that, numbers are stable, but he says they don’t reflect the increase in New West’s population.

“The amount of police officers that are out there now hasn’t changed, probably in 15 years. The amount of officers I have on a daily basis responding to calls is exactly as it was when our population was maybe 40,000.” Jansen says the population to officer ratio hasn’t improved since 2001. “[Then], there was 511 residents to every one police officer. Now, that’s 695 [to one police officer].”

What about police in schools?

New Westminster Schools previously ended the Child and Youth Liaison Officer program, which Jansen says he understands—though he wishes he had been given more of a chance to talk with the decision-makers. “No one from the school board, from the trustees even talked to me directly.” While there was a discussion with other representatives from NWPD, Jansen says he’s not angry, but he is disappointed to have been left out.

Jansen added without child and youth liaison officers, protocols in the schools have become more formal. “[When something happened before the program ended] our school liaison officer there would be able to be involved. There was no police file created, and there was no name added into our data banks,” explains Jansen, who says that without a liaison officer on site, a phone call is made, a police file is created, and an officer is sent to the school.

On the NWPD’s social media presence

Jansen can’t help but laugh when he’s asked about this, admitting he can’t take credit for the NWPD fun that goes on on Instagram and TikTok. “Yeah, [policing] is a serious job, but 99% of this job is being a caring, compassionate individual who is there to help the community.”

To put things into perspective, the NWPD TikTok account has just over 1,500 followers, with three of the videos reaching more than 10,000 views each.

Much of the NWPD social media content is spearheaded by Hailey Finnigan and media relations officer Sgt. Justine Thom, and Jansen refers to them as some of the talented individuals working in the organization. “It just makes people laugh, and it makes people feel like we’re more human. Whatever message we can get out there is great.”

In Thursday’s edition, Jansen takes questions from our New West Anchor readers, including topics on budget, traffic, and the NWPD’s presence at local events.