Creston RCMP set a possible record in 2024, conducting 11 search warrants under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act—presumably the highest per capita in Western Canada.
Staff Sgt. Brandon Buliziuk presented the detachment’s year-end report for 2024 during the January 13 Creston council meeting.
Calling 2024 a busy year would be an understatement as Buliziuk revealed that the departments call volume reached 4,147 by the end of December.
Of those calls, 2,288 were within the municipality, and 1,859 were from the rural area.
Busy years in the past have seen a call volume ranging from about 3,300 to 3,700.
Buliziuk credits this year’s increase not to a spike in criminal activity but rather the proactivity of the detachment’s officers.
“I attribute a lot of proactive work to that increase in the number as well, as there’s a lot of extra stuff being done behind the scenes in order to get us to our strategic priorities—one of the biggest ones being tackling the fentanyl issue. In order to do that, there needs to be a lot of proactive work, which does create files.”
Traffic
Officers handed out 735 traffic tickets last year, a slight increase from 2023.
Increased traffic enforcement, specifically around school zones, was another strategic priority for last year, which Buliziuk says will continue in 2025.
“That number is up, but it’s not always a positive indicator. It means that the infractions are taking place. We obviously don’t have a municipal traffic section, so we’re probably just scratching the surface on that,” noted Buliziuk.
Search warrants and seizures
According to Buliziuk, Creston RCMP executed the highest number of search warrants under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act per capita in all of Western Canada, if not the entire country.
A total of 11 warrants were executed in the Creston Valley in 2024, and roughly eight kilograms of illegal, toxic substances were seized. Buliziuk says these statistics signify the detachment’s dedication to identifying where illicit substances are coming from.
“It means that our members are doing a good job working with the public to identify the places that these substances are coming from, and that the proper steps are being taken to tackle this. We have a very good handle on who’s doing what in this valley, and they don’t get to move too freely without receiving service from our members.”
The detachment also executed the first police property seizure in the valley’s history last year after many unsuccessful attempts to deal with the property owner, who was a problem resident in the community.
“We tried to deal with the owner of that property in a manner that would hopefully dissuade them from further criminal activity in the community, but they chose not to co-operate.”
Buliziuk says the seizure sends a critical message to other criminals that if they “want to be careless, we will be coming.”
“If you want to be careless with who you rent your property to, or with your own property and allow the trafficking of these substances to take place out of it, we will keep coming, we will continue to engage, and we will be relentless with that.”
Detachment resources
Unlike many other detachments in B.C., Creston RCMP is fully staffed and resourced.
In fact, Buliziuk says they have people “lining out the door” for an opportunity to work and live in the Creston Valley.
“We continue to be 100 per cent resourced, and we are, again, one of the few detachments that is. We have a lineup of people wanting to come to Creston—experienced officers—which is another great thing. But we also have a lot of members who don’t want to leave now, so that’s also good.”
Over the last six months, Buliziuk has successfully onboarded two new reserve constables, who have the same authority as peace officers and must be retired RCMP officers.
The officers bring specific skills and expertise needed at the detachment, including media relations and general investigation experience to help with advanced files.
The officers are armed, paid, and funded through the province.
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