Community Policing Services

A cooperative effort between police, the school district and the community, DARE is a ten week educational adventure.  This program provides grade five and six students a proactive approach to the global substance abuse problem and the rising incidents of violence in our youth population.  The DARE curriculum helps the students build their own self-esteem and provides them with the knowledge and skills to help them refuse drugs and resist violence during their transition into middle and high schools. The Nelson Police boast one of the most successful programs in the Province.  Our DARE program not only encompasses all of our city’s elementary schools, but we have now initiated the middle school program at Trafalgar Junior Secondary.  To date, over 500 students have benefited from the expertise of the three dedicated officers who have been teaching the program since it’s inception in the year 2000.

DARE Website

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P.A.R.T.Y. (Prevent Alcohol Related Trauma In Youth) is a one-day, in hospital, injury awareness and prevention program for grade ten students from throughout the West Kootenays.  The goal of P.A.R.T.Y. is to provide young people with information to enable them to recognize potential injury causing situations and make prevention oriented decisions to minimize any unnecessary risk.  The grade ten students experience live talks and lifelike demonstrations, taking them from the accident scene, through the different hospital venues such as Emergency and ICU and then finally – the morgue. The Nelson Police, along with officers from West Kootenay Traffic Services, offer the students an insight into the feelings a police officer experiences when attending a potentially life threatening situation and the impact emotionally on the officers when having to notify next of kin about the death of a loved one.  These talks bring the human side of police officers to the minds of the students in an effort to foster an understanding of the horrible position the police are placed in when the wrong decision is made.

Contact the West Kootenay P.A.R.T.Y.

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Graffiti Removal Program

Graffiti is our fastest growing concern, costing the merchants, of downtown Nelson more than twenty thousand dollars per year to repair.  In partnership with the Nelson Daybreak Rotary Club, the Nelson Police have initiated a program of immediate eradication of graffiti aimed at discouraging the increasing incidents of vandalism in the downtown core.  Police will attend and catalogue the tagging, then promptly inform the Daybreak Rotary of the location.  The club members have six action teams, one of which will contact the store owners for permission to cover up the graffiti.  The store owners need only supply the paint.  The work is completed by the club members on a voluntary basis.

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Nelson Business Association

The NBA is an open forum that promotes and lobbies on behalf of businesses in our City. The Nelson Police Crime Prevention Office is presently working with the Association to find an equitable and non-discriminatory resolution to the busking and loitering problems in Nelson’s downtown core. The Nelson Police provide fraud and loss prevention education and seminars to business owners as required from time to time, and this is typically coordinated through the NBA.

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Nelson Police Charity Fishing Derby

Program sponsors from Insight Electronics and the Royal Canadian Legion present donations to Nancie Dohan, program coordinator

Each year, the Nelson Police Derby, held on Kootenay Lake, attracts fishers from across western Canada and the north western United States.  Based at the Balfour Beach Inn, proceeds from the Derby go directly to the Kokanee Park Salmon School Program.  This program offers elementary students from across the West Kootenays a unique look at spawning habits of our Kokanee Salmon and the impact this fish has on our fragile eco system. Program coordinator Nancy Dohan and her dedicated staff walk over two thousand students per year through this experience in nature.

Derby email

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Nelson and District Road Safety Committee

This committee is an umbrella group with representatives from the Nelson Police, Nelson R.C.M.P., I.C.B.C., School District 8, BCAA, the Nelson Fire Department, the LV Rogers Traffic Safety team, the Nelson and Slocan Valley Lions Clubs, Speed Watch, and the citizens of Nelson.  This committee meets regularly at our headquarters and is strategically placed to survey, analyse, and make recommendations into traffic control and concerns in the greater Nelson area. The work of this committee can then be funnelled through to police administration, public works departments, the School District, City Council, Ministry of Highways and other stakeholders in order to effect the changes that will enhance public safety.

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Nelson & District Youth Centre

The Nelson & District Youth Centre (NDYC) has been in operation for over seven years. The centre’s mandate is "creating a safe and accepting environment where all youth can interact and access a variety of activities they enjoy". In addition to this mandate, NDYC’s objectives aim to target a diverse group of youth with programs to serve the recreational, employment, cultural, and developmental needs of Nelson’s Youth. Youth Centre programs include late night crime prevention based recreation programming such as basketball, pool tournaments, Girl’s Night Out, floor hockey, ramp sports, and skateboarding lessons. Life skills workshops- such as food shop and time management workshops- are also staples of the Centre, along with darkroom workshops, youth and community volunteer programs, and other arts and crafts workshops. Internet access is provided and special event programming such as battle of the bands and career fairs.

NDYC also houses the Youth Employment Resource Centre. The Resource Centre offers employment and job search assistance to youth in the form of one-on-one assistance, workshops, a resource library, computer services, Internet access, and semi-annual career and job fairs. NDHC is a significant employer of youth in Nelson and aims to create enriched work experience programs for youth such as the NDYC renovation project, Youth Service Canada digital collections project, Youth Community Action projects, and the Summer Career Placement Program.

NDYC’s major sponsors include the Nelson Police, the City of Nelson, Human Resources Development Canada, The Ministry of Attorney General, and Youth Options B.C

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Nelson Police Camp

The Nelson Police and the Nelson RCMP Detachment, along with a committee of teachers, parents and dedicated citizen volunteers, annually host a three-day Police Camp at LV Rogers Secondary School. 

The camp provides grade eleven and twelve students from around the West Kootenays a unique experience into life as a recruit police officer. The focus of the camp is to build positive relationships between police and the youth of the area.  It also offers those contemplating a life in law enforcement an experience to help them in their final decision.  The candidates are subject to physical training, drill, self defence techniques, accident investigation and police canine services.  Students are also given classes in forensic identification, major crime and drug enforcement, career planning, life saving and community based policing.  The highlights of the weekend are most often reputed to be the Firearms Training and a helicopter ride with the RCMP Air Service from Kelowna. For information on Police Camp contact the Nelson Police Community Policing Officer at (250) 354-3919 or Email.

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Nelson Reserve Unit

The role of the Reserve Officer is that of a trained volunteer under the direct supervision of a regular police officer.  The Nelson Police currently have an active compliment of eight Reserve Officers. The dedicated members of the Nelson Reserve Unit undergo over one hundred and twenty hours of training, much the same as regular police officers in their initial instruction phase at a police academy.  Each of the reserves volunteer over one hundred hours per year to activities which include:

• Patrol duties with regular members

• Traffic control for parades, functions and special events, including By-law enforcement and security functions

• Park Patrol on bicycles, on foot or in the Community Policing vehicle

• Prisoner Guarding and security at crime scenes

• Bicycle Safety Programs, including bike rodeos and school safety lectures

• Assist and instruct at the annual Nelson Police Camp

For information on the Nelson Reserve Program contact the Community Policing Officer at (250) 354-3919 or Email.

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Victim Services Unit

The Nelson Police have partnered with the Central Kootenay RCMP to provide a joint regional Victim Services Unit that provides specific services to anyone who has been a victim of crime. The Unit is available on a 24-hour basis to assist victims of crime to cope with victimization.
These services include:

• 24 hour crisis intervention

• emotional support

• updates on the progress of police investigations and court proceedings

• preparation for court appearances

• accompanying victims to court

• assistance in applying for Criminal Injury Compensation

• referral to other agencies for legal or financial information or for long-term counselling

Being a victim of crime can cause financial, physical and emotional hardship. Help is available.

If you are the victim of crime, report it to the police immediately, and request to be contacted by the Victim Services Unit or call the Victim Services Coordinator at (250) 505-5657 or (250) 354-5196.

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page updated: 2008.02.28