Community Policing in Williams Lake have a new vehicle for their members to do patrols with due to a successful civil forfeiture application.
Manager of Community Safety, Dave Dickson says they had started putting aside a small amount of money each month to replace their tired 2013 vehicle a few years ago.
He says they had decided to apply for a civil forfeiture grant to augment the money they had, but instead were successful in receiving a 2013 ford edge.
“It’s an all wheel drive which is very practical for winter conditions here. We picked it up maybe 6 weeks ago in Vancouver and it was a seized vehicle from some evil activity that was happening. In the policing world, the government seized it and we are now the proud owners of it and we are very grateful.”
The vehicle is valued at around $20,000.
The BC Government says that from 2006 until early 2016, the Civil Forfeiture Office had received over 3700 file referrals from law enforcement agencies.
“These have resulted in the forfeiture of $64 million with $27.5 million of this money being re-invested in B.C. communities in the form of crime prevention grants and compensation to eligible victims.”
Currently, 8 of the 10 provinces in Canada have a civil forfeiture program. In B.C., civil forfeiture actions are commenced in the B.C. Supreme Court and a small number of cases have been heard by the B.C. Court of Appeal.
(With files from Government of B.C.)
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