This episode, Mayor Jack Crompton connects remotely with Inspector Kara Triance, the RCMP’s Officer in Charge for the Sea to Sky region. Inspector Triance has over 20 years of policing experience from a variety of regions including Richmond, the Vancouver International Airport, Victoria, Bella Bella, and the Vernon/ North Okanagan region.
They discuss the challenges of adapting to the speed of change and partnering to keep local communities safe during COVID-19. Listeners are asked to do their part to help flatten the curve of the pandemic by staying home.
This episode, Mayor Jack Crompton connects remotely with Inspector Kara Triance, the RCMP’s Officer in Charge for the Sea to Sky region. Inspector Triance has over 20 years of policing experience from a variety of regions including Richmond, the Vancouver International Airport, Victoria, Bella Bella, and the Vernon/ North Okanagan region.
They discuss the challenges of adapting to the speed of change and partnering to keep local communities safe during COVID-19. Listeners are asked to do their part to help flatten the curve of the pandemic by staying home.
Narrator: 0:02
The Whistler Podcast. Candid conversations about everything Whistler. With hosts Mayor Jack Crompton.
Mayor Crompton: 0:08
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Whistler Podcast. Thanks for joining us. I'm Mayor Jack Crompton. I'd like to acknowledge, as always, that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Lillooet Nation and the Squamish Nation. I also want to thank Mountain FM for their support in producing the Whistler Podcast, actually remotely. Now, during COVID-19, we're not in the Mountain FM studios. We are in our homes, and hoping that moving forward we will be able to be back in the Mountain FM studios, but right now it's remote. And today I am pleased you have our own RCMP inspector Kara Triance with me. Inspector Triance is the RCMP Officer in Charge for the Sea to Sky region and has been responsible for overseeing policing in communities including Bowen Island, Lions Bay, Pemberton, Squamish and Whistler since September 2016. She has over 20 years of policing experience from a variety of regions, including Bella Bella, Richmond, the Vancouver National Airport and the Vernon North Okanagan region. Welcome, Kara.
Inspector Triance: 1:19
Thanks. It's good to be here, I am really happy to be here with you too. We are gonna have to get used to this social distancing, I guess. Physical distancing, not social distancing, but physical distancing conversations. I know you and I meet regularly and in person. We've been over the last couple of weeks very connected by phone and by media forms that we've got this privilege of policing and working in this day and era. Certainly a change had we have been through this global pandemic maybe 15 years ago even would have been a different story. So pretty interesting. This.
Mayor Crompton: 1:54
It's fascinating, and to imagine ourselves here even four weeks ago. I can't even imagine having a conversation about you stood within four feet of that person, and that was not something you should have done. It's just the world's different.
Inspector Triance: 2:11
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we were all headed into Spring Break. My partner is a teacher here in the Sea to Sky, and we were excited for that scheduled school holiday, and ready to take off down to the desert. He resides originally from Arizona. So we were headed down to do some mountain biking down there, and I remember the Thursday before Spring Break having these really deep discussions in our house, because at this point, the borders were closed and we weren't in the state that we're in today. And we were still at that point where we could consider travel and having some tough discussions in our house about what does Spring Break look like? Obviously, we didn't end up going across the border, and lots came really clear to us by the Friday. It's really hard to believe that just four weeks later, this is where we're at.
Mayor Crompton: 2:54
Yeah, I agree. Okay, well, let's start with what brought you to the Sea to Sky, and what keeps you here?
Inspector Triance: 3:02
You bet. So we're thrilled to be in the Sea to Sky, call the Sea to Sky home. We've been a family of change. My policing career has been 20 years, and I met my husband about 17 years ago, and we've, like I said, worked all over the province. We talked about that a little bit, but change is something that we embrace openly, which is maybe been interesting given these times of the pandemic because changes has been that really real for all of us right now. So for us, that's meant physically moving our house and getting to know new people and new communities were thrilled to be able to be in the Sea to Sky. For me, policing has been a really interesting career. As an RCMP officer, we generally do, you know, 4 to 5, 7 years in the community, and then we move on to new positions, whether that be true promotion or through change, and start to begin to broaden our experiences into different types of policing and building that breath and that unique skill set that policing has, so fascinating to have moved around to call the Sea to Sky home. I think I've got one of the best jobs in the country personally. Pretty hard to believe that we have a world class ski resort in our backyard. We have a back country that, is just immense and so beautiful to explore all the things that we love to do as a family, and individually, it's here right in our backyard. And then I have a very interesting policing career here. Lots of unique challenges that I've never experienced before and other communities that I worked in and lots of really open and willing partners to work with. So that's been been a great segue into my work here.
Mayor Crompton: 4:47
So you and I have a longer history than our working relationship here. And when we were hiring people and you were recommended by the RCMP as the person that we would hire, it was so exciting for me, and then we did. How do we know each other? Kara?
Inspector Triance: 5:06
Yeah, you bet. I grew up in Kelowna. Kelowna is where I called home for 17 years. And your family is well up in Kelowna. So neat to have had that family connection rate coming into the Sea to Sky, I said in my interview, I remember talking to you in the interview that it was a pretty interesting time. We hadn't talked in, probably, I want to say 15 to 20 years at that point, even longer perhaps. And yet to reconnect in this dynamic working relationship as partners is so interesting. And from an RCMP perspective, it was really interesting, too, because our job immediately is to forge relationships within our communities. When we arrive in a new community, our job is to get out there and to do that community profile, meet our Mayor's meet our community partners, our leaders in the community, whether that be through private businesses or social enterprises, get out and know who your community contacts are. And for me, I felt like that burden was already lifted off my shoulders, knowing who you were, you at the time were on council. Just being able to have that one little segue in there, that I didn't have to work is hard to create that conversation and know kind of who you were as somebody and the background that you came from, I felt like that was one challenge off of my plate. There's always a lot of challenges with us as RCMP officers. You can imagine picking up your families and moving every 5 to 7 years, or shorter at times. If if the deployment is a unique one, like a remote community, perhaps when limited resources we might only be there for 2 to 3 years, and that's a pretty interesting challenge. So having those familiar faces amongst the community's you're moving into is really, really nice.
Mayor Crompton: 6:51
Yeah, and we would have been 18 years old when we had last seen each other, so obviously a lot of changes; along policing career. But anyway, it's been a lot of fun working with you. So let's talk about what everyone wants to or is talking about right now, and what is on everyone's mind in Whistler and globally, The last three weeks have been unprecedented in history, I think. I mean, I guess people point to the Spanish flu in in the early 19 hundreds, but for us, this is something so unusual. So extreme. COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on our community, and it just evolves so fast. Today. The provincial government closed access to the back country, and it feels like that's been something we've been talking about forever. But it's been six days that that has been sort of a top of conversation about whether or not that that country would be closed, and now it is. Comment on how fast this is moving, and your experience as a police officer as it relates to COVID-19 and the changes you're seeing in the community.
Inspector Triance: 8:04
Yeah, you know, I'm really glad you asked that because, you know, when we we dig into what the RCMP's biggest challenge has been during this pandemic. I feel really strongly that it's been the daily change of information and the speed and rate at which we are changing. You know, I often like to think of policing as something that we do methodically and well thought out in advance with the good operational plans. Yes, there's times when we are dynamic, extremely responsive, extremely quick and making snap decisions, absolutely. But in my opinion, if we've prepared well and move slowly and thought things through, then we have the ability to address potential risks and changes as they come with all the information that we need at our hands. But here, I have never seen things move at the speed that they're moving at. The changes are happening so quickly. So, you're right. Six short days ago, we were talking about closing the backcountry leading into this beautiful, sunny weather that we're going into, this long weekend, this time to explore our back country and it truly, I'm gonna give you my personal opinion, it breaks my heart that we're closing the backcountry because that is what keeps people well. And that is what keeps people, particularly in our community and the people that are accessing that backcountry, that keeps their passion fiery and going. But I truly support the decision. And I think it was absolutely the right call, and I do advocate and support that decision was absolutely the right call. So do I have mixed feelings of the person as a human who loves to be in that backcountry? I feel crushed about it. And I cannot wait until the day we open that back up in the day that we open up the corridor again to visitors is going to be really exciting. Like it will be what I consider home again. And right now it feels empty. And that radio silence, we call it in policing language. That radio silence right now is eerie. We don't like it. In policing when your radio is silent, you think that something's wrong. You're constantly checking your radio. Your radio silence is not how we feel comfortable as police officers. So having this radio silence right now has been really kind of weary on our souls, or wearing on our souls a little bit. But yes, I I think when we focus on things like that, the backcountry closure, our frontline workers, our medical staff, our search and rescue volunteers, our police officers searching for missing persons. Our health care teams, we can't deal with large crowds in the backcountry. Potential avalanches, the changing and warming of the temperatures, the risks and exposure right now would put increased pressure and increased demands on our staff that we just cannot address in this current time. And so I echo what the province is saying, what yourself and what your mayors of the corridor have been saying, and that is please; stay home this weekend. Stay home and close to home. Access that green space and that outdoors in a safe way. I heard somebody say it over the weekend, and I love this example. I'm gonna use it right now. Please, go ride your bike. Go outside in the backcountry, but act as though you have a dozen eggs in your backpack or in your camel back, or in your fanny pack and move about as though you don't want to crush those eggs. So you're not gonna ride your black trails. You're not gonna go intensely into the bike park and smash those eggs about, not that our bike park is open right now, but just as an example, but we're not going to be doing our largest features right now. We're gonna be moving safely and slowly through the blue trails of the forest, getting out there and focusing on our wellness, But doing it safely. We can deal with some accidents that happen that are infrequent. In fact, we we had that happened in our house over the last week. We were just using the Valley Trail. My dearest six year old daughter fractured her leg from ankle to knee with a tibial shaft fracture last week, so accidents do happen. Access to medical services, you need to do that if you need those medical services whether they be mental health or care, your front line health care staff are there for you. Trust me, I know. But we don't want to put that extra strain on them. We don't. We want to take the steps we can to not put that risk out there. So we're taking steps to try and reduce that.
Mayor Crompton: 12:23
Yeah, I think that's a great point to emphasize, that health care is there. If you feel like you might have COVID-19 you should go home, and you should phone 1 888 COVID19 or 811. But if you've broken your leg or you have chest pains, you should go to the doctor or call 911. These are services that are critically important and available to people.
Inspector Triance: 14:53
I want to segue into that for policing too, because I think I've heard multiple times from people in the community. "Well, we didn't want to call you because we know you guys are really busy right now," and I cannot reiterate enough that the police are there for you right now. We will respond and we really want to partner in keeping our community same right now. Your front line workers are working, and we are there for you. So please call our police officers if you need help. We absolutely are there not only for a wellness check on mental health and issues that you're seeing, but family violence in the home, or, if your child who needs help, you can call the Kids Help phone anonymously. The kids help line is available to you. There's a lot of other resources out there that are here to support you through these really challenging time. So please reach out to us.
Mayor Crompton: 14:53
I wanted to go back. Something you were you spoke a little bit about which was how fast things are moving. I've been amazed by the how quickly the federal and provincial government have put programs of billions of dollars into the world in weeks. The response times for programs that generally take years to be made available are happening in days. And because everything's moving so fast, there's this strange experience of things moving so fast and so slow all the same time. I think sometimes we we are frustrated by not having answers to the questions we have as quickly as we'd want them. I certainly experienced that. And yet turning around a full backcountry closure in six days is quick. That is very quick, putting $100 billion on the table to keep people employed. That's huge, and that's quick and in the time frame that we're dealing with.
Inspector Triance: 14:54
I know as Mayor's, you guys are very deeply engaged with what your police resources are doing in your community and how your local tax dollars are spent. One of the things that we do is meet regularly to talk about not only policing needs for your community, things that you're seeing, but work that we're doing and how I am directing operations to keep you guys safe. One of the things that I just had in a conversation with another mayor in the corridor was around the speed at which we can produce an operational plan for this weekend. Given that we are trying our hardest to keep up with other demands as well. It's incredible, the work that's being done by not only my police teams, but the partnerships that we've formed, you know, the Natural Resource Officers, the Park's Officers, the Conservation Officers, Bylaw, Fire, everybody is turned around and spitting out operational plans that have adapted to this new way of operating and policing for lack of a better for specific to what I'm talking about right now in this new environment. We have trained police officers on the Public Health Act where we never have enforced, in my 20 years, the Public Health Act, ever. Not only was it be really clear on what our public health orders are and what public health orders we can enforce, but how to train our officers to be able to respond and educate the community on on these orders. It's been really interesting and unique, challenging leadership experience for myself.
Mayor Crompton: 16:17
Can you tell me ? What can you tell me about the operational plan for this weekend?
Inspector Triance: 16:21
Yeah, I can tell you that we're gonna have increased teams. Our focus is on the safety in our seasonal placing area. So we call those areas the provincial area and that is in the Sea to Sky corridor. You're talking about the Squamish Valley, Mamquam, Callaghan, all the way up to Joffre Lakes, Pemberton Valley. We will be focused in that provincial area. We're partnering with Whistler Blackcomb to do patrols on Whistler Blackcomb Mountain. You'll be seeing a lot more presence on the highway in the corridor with the Sea to Sky RCMP traffic services and our frontline police officers responding to calls for service locally in our parks. I know yesterday you and I shared some messaging back and forth as we were doing two different things and and on the call with one another. And you watched one of our police officers pull in our e-bikes. So we have e-bikes that they can access the Lost Lake area, for example, or when the mountains open up on the mountain, be able to mountain bike, off road and on the Valley Trail on bikes. And yesterday they were involved in the apprehension of an impaired driver out there in the visible area and able to see and observe behaviours is really closely and, you know, one of the feedbacks from our community policing officer Nate Miller. He leads our community engagement team that has our new domestic violence sex assault position as well as our traffic officer and a dedicated youth resource. What are our plans to grow this throughout the year? And we have him actually out there and doing some bike patrols right now in hitting our parks. And he said it was so neat to be able to engage with people much more in person than when I'm in my vehicle. And you know, he's been doing this for years. He's out there doing foot patrol all the time. He said the bike adds just a really great component to hopping off, getting places quickly, interacting easily with people, saying hello, reaching out to our community partners, getting there and doing that work together has been incredible. Yeah, I mean, it really goes back to what the core objective of policing in your community is. Our our job as RCMP is to keep our community safe to partner in keeping our community safe here. The frontline leaders in keeping our community safe. So some of that's gonna come through education. It's ah, you know it. It's not a good idea, Toe, uh, yelling Somebody get into a heated argument where you're yelling at one another end and treating each other disrespectfully. If a police officer sees that, you're probably gonna give you some education and some guidance.
Mayor Crompton: 20:23
It's interesting. One of the topics of conversation that I've been having with people is the idea that some of the statements that Dr. Henry has made are actually enforceable ordinances and others are sort of encouragements to live differently, meaning in a post COVID-19 world or in an existing COVID-19 world, we want to wash our hands, not touch our face, not stand within two meters of another person, stay home. These are things that she's, you know, compelling, inspiring, encouraging us to do, not making enforceable ordinances that the police are going to be able to arrest you when you're standing three feet beside another person. Now there are things that certainly have become ordinances. Like if you ran a sit down restaurant during the pandemic, if you were to have a party of over 50 people, the police could enforce that. If you didn't quarantine for 14 days if you've been out of the country for a time is also enforceable. And so there's this really interesting role I see your team's playing in both enforcement but also education, and I assume that your team does that anyway. And you do that all year long. But certainly there's a desire in the community for enforcement on some of those things that aren't ordinances. I just wondered what your thoughts are on the enforcement versus education during this pandemic.
Inspector Triance: 20:23
Yeah, I mean, it really goes back to what the core objective of policing in your community is. Our our job as RCMP is to keep our community safe. To partner in keeping our community safe here. The frontline leaders in keeping our community safe. So some of that's going to come through education. It's, you know, not a good idea to yell at somebody to get into a heated argument where you're yelling at one another and treating each other disrespectfully. If a police officer sees that, you're probably gonna give you some education and some guidance on how to talk to one another respectfully, and how to prevent that from becoming a more serious issue, like violence. And the same thing is gonna happen when a police officer is dealing with you not standing six feet apart. They're gonna give you some guidance and some education on what our public health orders are and what we can do to keep safe in our community and in our country at this time in our world. And so they'll give you that education piece. Public education is a key focus or police officers right now, and we will be out there doing public education but enforcement such as engaging our Medical Health Officer and asking on seeking further guidance and direction will come through our Medical Health Officer for police officers need to take action in situations where there's groups over 50 or breaching of the quarantine act and things like that.
Mayor Crompton: 21:09
I think that there's a real need for our community to come together and deliver on this because we're motivated and we are inspired to do it rather than we're shamed into feeling bad about ourselves. And one of the messages that I love that's been out there lately is that it's not too late for you to be a part of flattening the curve. And British Columbia is doing a terrific job. I think when you look at the numbers, we've taken what Dr Henry has been saying extremely seriously and as a community, one of things I've been really wanting to say to Whistler is well done and keep it up, and let's you know, move toward our better angels and be people who inspire action rather than expect you and your team to be, you know, rolling around the valley, enforcing social distancing. This is something that Dr. Henry is asking us to do because we're inspired to be a part of the effort, and I think that that's far more effective. She was talking about a question that was asked, has been asked by the media a number of times. Would you consider making the two meter separation and forceful ordinates? And she said, no. It is such a difficult thing to enforce. The idea of having police officers run around with measuring sticks that would, you know, find out how far you're standing from another person is really difficult and ineffective. However, she says, it is easy, achievable, and we're doing it to inspire that change in our communities. And people are taking it seriously, and keeping that distance not because we've required them to do so, but because they've heard the message, believe the message and implemented it for themselves. And certainly there are people who will not, who will not take it seriously. They are still welcome to join the effort. It's not too late, but I think she's right. That inspiration is more effective than enforcement on something like a six meter, sorry, a six foot separation between people.
Inspector Triance: 23:27
And I couldn't agree with you more, and I want to say thanks to the community. We have encountered dozens of people through the education piece of this enforcement and the public health orders. And we have been thrilled with the response of 99.9% of the community members out there say, thanks to our front line workers, they respect that there are challenges and they have appreciated the reminder to just take a step back and break up their groups a little bit. We have had so much great feedback and compliance and community members just pouring their hearts out to be able to respond to this positively so really good response from the community. I'm a pretty competitive person, you know me as somebody could played a lot of team sports from rugby, basketball volleyball when I was growing up. And I do love being a part of a national police force that has got the province that is doing so well right now. I'm proud to be a police officer in BC. The BC RCMP is really, really pulled together to work just exceptionally well through this, we've got a divisional emergency operation center working up and running that provides us with guidance and support and logistical support through this. We've been able to get equipment out to our police officers on the front line almost immediately. Within week one we were getting up. Procurement was happening. We've got a team of leaders working in our district office that have been incredibly supportive to us and communications teams that are doing a great job. So I I certainly am proud to be a part of the BC RCMP right now. I am incredibly proud of our Sea to Sky RCMP team and our communities here in the corridor. We're doing a great job, and I couldn't agree with you more than it is our civic duty right now. We have to listen to these guidance in this direction. And if we do, we're gonna come out of this healthy and we are really, couldn't echo enough that I'm really proud of the way that we're going. And I hope that will continue through this busy long weekend where people want to be connected with one another that we're gonna get creative, we're gonna think outside of the box, we're gonna figure out ways to have a cup of coffee with one another in our front yard that respects distancing. We're gonna go for a walk with our friends were going to bring our families together in ways that we've never done before, like a card game over the Internet, or things like that that we haven't done in the past will pull ourselves together.
Mayor Crompton: 25:43
So obviously that inspiration is so good for our town. What stories have you heard about what's happening in community that's positive during this time.
Inspector Triance: 25:55
Yeah, thanks. I was just in touch yesterday with school district officials who were mentioning that they were coordinating the delivery of lunches for families that kids would otherwise be on the lunch program when they were at school. They're actually getting those lunches now delivered to their houses. We've got a local community Counselor Greg MacDonell, who did a Whistler Live presentation on parenting last night. It was Great.
Mayor Crompton: 26:42
Wasn't that outstanding! And it's available on video. I think you can grab it on facebook.com. Whistler Live studio, I think, is the address. And yet it's terrific. Just parenting tips for parents during the pandemic, right?
Inspector Triance: 26:42
The resources we have our outstanding! Outstanding! You know, we've got donations coming into the food bank, huge cash donations. Whistler Blackcomb, who shut down their operations, brought all their food to the food bag. There are families that are depending on this. You know, we've got police officers who have signed up to volunteer to call into the 211 number and speak to elders or seniors in the community that are needing somebody to speak to. We have we have all sorts of people just pulling their weight in individual ways. My daughter broke her leg as I mentioned last week, and I had people dropping off meals at my house. We had gifts. We had activities for her to do. The community is taking care of one another and it is really challenging times. So don't underestimate the power of our community and the power of kindness right now. The power of kindness and being able to trust in one another to reach out and extend that hand is really important. These times are unprecedented. We've talked about that. All of those little things make a big difference. When I'm looking at policing and looking at the social fabric of the community and what impacts wellness and what impacts how our families are functioning at home. What impacts mental health and trauma and things that are already weighing heavy on people's minds. So if we can take care of some of these things that are exasperated in the situation. Poverty and financial challenges, people having to move. All of these things are not great circumstances given the pandemic that we're in. And if we could do anything to ease that burden or reach out. I loved Greg's language yesterday in that conversation. Be curious ask, ask the question. How are you doing? Is there anything I can do for you? You know, it doesn't look like you're feeling great. Is there something you want to talk about? Getting curious is exactly what all of us can continue to do with one another to support one another.
Mayor Crompton: 28:28
Yeah, I thought that was great in relation to kids. Be curious about your kids and don't sort of avoid the conversation about what's happening around them, because for them, that's what they are, you know, thinking about and are interested in. It was a really great event. I agree. There's a couple photographers doing photos from a social distance of people's front steps, and all of the money is going to local food banks and and community service's organizations. I have been so impressed with some of the sort of ways of staying socially connected that are happening around town, seeing socially distance coffees between people you know, drawn lines in their neighbourhood about where they can sit, where they they shouldn't sit, and sharing that with their kids and coaching their kids on how to have safe interactions with other people during this time. I think as much damage as this is going to do to society, and I think it's a bit pollyannaish to not grant that it's going to be devastating. It is devastating. But on the other side of this, I think there are also benefits and opportunities that are going to present themselves and that we need to be alive to those as we battle the damage that's being done and we try and preserve what's wonderful about our communities. We also need to stay attuned to those opportunities that are going to present themselves in ways that we don't expect and ways that we do expect. I mean, I think that working remotely is going to be a different thing. On the other side of this, we'll understand it better will know how to do it better. It will be natural in ways that it hasn't been in the past. I certainly know from a government perspective, last night we had our first fully online council meeting. So everyone's in a little box and theres the Brady Bunch on your screen and it worked. If you would've asked me two months ago, could we have a meeting that was open to the public, and that each member of council felt like they had their opportunity to comment, I'd say, "you know what? We have a great team and we'll get to work on it." But if you'd said "we'll do this three weeks from now," I'd say not a chance. I think there are opportunities on the other side of this that we could take advantage of.
Inspector Triance: 31:03
Yeah, you know what? We've learned it with our court process and our bail process, we're seeing some changes happen with the movement of prisoners and the pretrial, big bail released conditions, etcetera that are happening remotely and through telecom moving and video conferencing that we've never seen happen before. And the speed at which the changes are happening are remarkable, and we anticipate, and I'm not saying this particular change is gonna stick, but we anticipate that some of the things that we've learned out of this will stick, and some of the efficiencies that we've gained will happen. I certainly hope that I'm not policing when, my husband as I mentioned is a teacher in the community, when he's teaching, and I've had to go back and relieve him for some parenting, and I sure hope not be taking policing calls with a two year old and a six year old with a broken leg coming. I want to come to work, have the outstanding child care that we have in our community, look after my children so that I could focus on policing, and not have to juggle that balance. But you know what? When things get tough, we roll up our sleeves and we get to work, and we've done that. And people have been incredibly understanding and really great at adaptation. So change leadership is something we talk about as a core value in in the RCMP, and we're in it. We're in it big time. This is the meat.
Mayor Crompton: 32:20
Yeah, it has been fascinating. And it will continue to be, it's changing so fast. There are things that have not happened yet, but will be just a fascinating as the things that we see in the rear view for sure. Any sort of final thoughts for our community as we move through this time. Advice. How should we walk through this together? What are you telling your team? The Sea to Sky RCMP, and what would you want to say to your community?
Inspector Triance: 32:53
My focus with my police officers has been wear your protective equipment. This has been strange. Never in 20 years have I donned a large filtered mask and goggles to go out and talk to somebody in a in a six foot bubble. But I'm going out there and having to deal with an intoxicated person who's not well, who's maybe spitting or coughing or not feeling great. I have to put some protective gear on. And I don't know every time that I'm approaching a vehicle or of approaching a person, whether or not I'm going to need to don that personal protective gear, and I need to take this a steps to do so. We look really different when we're out there and we're policing. We need to be as good at transitioning in and out of that protective equipment as we are at transitioning between our tools that we transition between. This is part of what keeps us safe right now in doing their job and part of what keeps you safe. If we are an asymptomatic transmitter of this virus, you need for us to be wearing a mask. If we're gonna enter in that that six foot physical bubble so expect to see us look a little bit different,
Mayor Crompton: 33:55
It's called dawning and doffing. I've heard.
Inspector Triance: 34:02
I said donning my protective gear. I'm not sure that's the correct language
Mayor Crompton: 34:04
I should say tell the listener Kara and I know each other because she's very close friends with my younger brother, who's a doctor. And he works in Peace Arch Memorial Hospital. And we were talking about putting on your protective equipment, and that is technically called dawning. And then taking it off is actually called doffing.
Inspector Triance: 34:30
I did not know the doffing part, but I will use that. Thank you, Dan, Crompton. I probably should have, but donning and doffing my protective gear. We have talked a lot about that, we've been calling it transitioning from protective gear on - off, wipe on - wipe off.
Mayor Crompton: 34:45
So you're saying you will look different when you are having a normal police interaction with someone in community.
Inspector Triance: 34:53
Every time a police officer has to interact with somebody, they have to perform a risk assessment, taking the information, the factors that they're seeing before them and take the appropriate steps. Sometimes that's just distance, right? We call that the time distance ratio. The time it takes for me to take the appropriate action to be able to respond to the way that I'm seeing you respond. Time distance ratio. I might be doing that if you had a knife in your hand. But in these times, I might be just doing that if you're coughing. It's very different, right, so they're different times. There's different risks. We do a risk assessment where we're dealing with an individual who is riding a bike without a helmet on. We're going to stop him and talk to him about putting a helmet on. That risk assessment is very different. Every single time we deal with somebody, we're taking different factors into play as we begin to deal with an individual. So it's going to be up to the police officers risk assessment whether or not they're doing that. I can tell you if we're going within that six foot physical distancing bubble, there is an obligation for police officers to don their protective gear, and there will be a time when mainly the safest thing for them to do is take off their protective gear because now their goggles are getting fogged and they are having issues. There might be a time when they have to make changes, so I can't answer that one with a blanket answer. We will be dealing with you with protective gear on or exactly what that looks like. But what I can tell you is they're all equipped with personal protective equipment. Uh, sorry that they all have that in their persons. We have spares. We have the decontamination area set up, and my admin team heroes behind the scenes have just made that happen in a matter of days. They can come in, they can bag up their uniforms. They can take a hot shower with soapy water, they can clean their equipment with all of the appropriate disinfectant solutions. We've got the ability to change them out and get ready for policing. The next shift comes on and in a clean environment to do so.
Mayor Crompton: 36:41
Well, Inspector Triance. This was terrific. I'm grateful for your time. I'm grateful for the work that you and your team do in our community. It was fascinating chat to you. And I look forward to the next one when we could be talking about the priorities that you have for policing in our region. I am grateful for you taking the time today. Thank you.
Inspector Triance: 37:07
Thank you Jack for your leadership. Mayor Crompton and the other mayors in our corridor, you guys have been so good in the public messaging and the public voice to get out of the things that we really need to hear and pay attention to. So we've really seen value in our partnership in our relationship going into this. Those already established relationships were foundational for the partnership that keep through this pandemic. I can't wait for the post pandemic podcast. I think we'll have a lot of different things to talk about. Other than COVID-19, so I'm looking forward to another invite back. Thank you.
Mayor Crompton: 37:34
Looking forward to the flip side. I also want to thank Mountain FM for their continued support of the Whistler Podcast. Thanks for listening. I'm Jack Crompton. Talk to you next time.
Narrator: 37:45
You've been listening to the Whistler Podcast. Candid conversations about everything Whistler. To find out more about the Whistler Podcast. Visit Whistler.ca/whistlerpodcast.