By Tommy Osborne

Prince George Sheriffs

Prince George receiving new sheriff

Feb 8, 2024 | 2:16 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Prince George will soon be seeing a new sheriff, as the provincial government announced 13 new sheriffs will be working in the province, with one of them heading to our court house.

While many may think of a police officer or the wild west when hearing the word ‘sheriff,’ B.C.’s Attorney General Niki Sharma explained a sheriff has many responsibilities, all related to the court system.

“They’re in the courthouses of our province, helping to transport accused, making sure that people that want to access the court can do so safely, protecting safety in courthouses throughout the province. It’s a really important job,” Sharma said.

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“I had a chance to see sheriff training at the Justice Institute, B.C., and they’re very well trained. They know exactly how to keep things safe and to transport and to ensure that people feel safe without feeling intimidated,” she continued.

The 13 new sheriffs should help address a sheriff vacancy issue across the province. Sharma explained the government is ramping up its recruitment efforts, which has resulted in a 33% increase of applicants. Long term, Sharma expects more sheriffs to continue applying and graduating, but Prince George-McKenzie MLA Mike Morris calls 13 sheriffs “a drop in the bucket” when considering all the issues across the province.

“What concerns me more is the number of trials that were postponed, and I think it was close to 90 trials were postponed last year or stayed as a result of inadequate sheriff’s services and support in that. So it’s nice to see that they’re hiring more sheriffs today, but how many vacancies do we have today and what are they doing to alleviate the stressors that are on the system?” Morris said.

“The sheriff’s services has been in deplorable state now for a number of years.”

Morris hopes to see answers to the immediate vacancies and issues, as the 13 sheriffs and more expected on the way help long term, but it doesn’t fully resolve the problems happening now.

“I’m more interested to hear how they’re making progress with ensuring that there’s adequate resources in our court system. We’ve got 89 or 90 court offices across the province. We’ve had a number of court cases postponed or stayed over the past year because we haven’t had enough sheriff resources on site to provide security,” he said.

“It’s missing the point, I think we should have had access to the bigger picture of whats going on within sheriff services.”

With the government continuing to push recruitment efforts and the number of applicants rising, it’s possible a solution to the sheriff shortage may be on the way once more applicants graduate.

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