Drugs, human trafficking and money laundering on the agenda for public safety meeting

Human and drug trafficking as well as money laundering are topics of discussion at the Tuesday, Dec. 17 meeting of Prince George’s Standing Committee on Public Safety. 

The agenda for the meeting shows that Supt. Darin Rappel, Prince George RCMP officer in charge, will bring up those items during his briefing. 

Rappel will discuss how local Mounties investigate those crimes as well as their scope within the community. 

An agenda document said that local RCMP have gone undercover to purchase drugs from both known targets and other dealers. During that process, police found sales of both fentanyl and methamphetamine. 

The document also said that money laundering in Prince George is on a smaller scale than larger communities. Police are seeing an increase in electronic purchases for drug and human trafficking compared to cash transactions. 

As for human trafficking, the document said that local investigations “involve persons typically newly entrenched into the drug subculture.” 

Another possible discussion will be on Prince George RCMP’s adoption of body-worn cameras, which started as of Dec. 8. As previously reported by The Citizen, the local detachment will be issuing more than 100 cameras to frontline officers at a cost of around $300,000 to city taxpayers. 

The agenda for the Dec. 17 meeting also lays out a draft work plan for the committee’s first four meetings of 2025. 

The Jan. 21, 2025 meeting will discuss the impact of street lighting on public safety. 

The Feb. 18, 2025 meeting will talk about vacant buildings and land as well as unsightly properties. 

At the March 18, 2025 meeting, the committee is scheduled to direct administration to develop a report on the city’s options to contract a private security firm to patrol between east of Queensway to Victoria Street and from First Avenue to Patricia Boulevard between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. each day.  

Also planned is for the committee to invite representatives from the Prince George Regional Correctional Centre for a meeting. 

For the April 15, 2025, meeting, the committee will hold a vote on a motion to direct administration to work with the local RCMP to promote the Mounties’ Community Policing Block Watch and Citizen on Patrols program and then return to a later meeting with a report. 

The Dec. 17 meeting starts at noon in the second-floor conference room at Prince George City Hall, located at 1100 Patricia Blvd.