By Cheryl Jahn

Prince George’s Top Cop retires

Aug 9, 2024 | 9:23 AM

PRINCE GEORGE – After eight years at the Prince George RCMP detachment, first as an Inspector and then as Superintendent, Shaun Wright has decided it is time to turn over the role to someone else. He says it’s been well worth it.

“Policing is an excellent opportunity to help not only individuals but society as a whole, particularly in the RCMP. There is a wealth of opportunities, and I don’t even know how many hundred job functions are in this organization. But there’s something for everyone and you can find your niche. It’s punishing and rewarding all at the same time. And I know when I started there were old timers who told me in my first week, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re starting to do this now. Society’s changed and get out all you can, and I don’t regret one minute of it.”

His tenure has had some challenging issues. The budget for the local RCMP is predominantly covered by the City of Prince George and it means he has spent many a budget meeting looking for additional dollars to deal with some fairly significant issues plaguing this community. Drugs are top of mind.

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“By far the biggest thing that I’ve had to navigate was decriminalization, which lasted for a year, a little over a year, which is one of the greatest public policy disasters, in my personal opinion, that has befallen this city.”

He says in his decades-long time as an officer of the law, he’s never seen the streets of not just our city, but any city, as unnerving as now.

“I’ve never seen it like this. And looking back on my almost 30 years, much like yourself, always been homeless people. But there was never kind of this sense of fear and apprehension around that population that we see now.”

He attributes that to the opioid crisis.

“I’m not sure exactly what the answer is. I mean, it’s not my job necessarily to put forth a public policy, but it seems to me if you’re sitting around waiting for individuals who are impaired by opioids to make a choice to get off opioids, that that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy for failure.”

But he says he’s proud of some of the achievements attained under his watch.

“Something I do look back on positively over the last five years is our crime rates have decreased relative to the rest of the province and the country as a whole. So I want to say about ten years ago, Prince George was always at the top of violent crime, the Maclean’s list and all those things. We’ve slowly worked at that and worked our way down. Definitely City Council and the support that they’ve offered has been key in adding some additional resources and giving us the capacity to focus on those issues.”

Wright has words for the person chosen as his successor.

“Check your ego at the door.”