Unlike the past two summers, the Customer Care and Patrol Team (CAP) Team will not be on the Kamloops North Shore this year, where they served as ambassadors to residents and visitors in the city.

It’s as the North Shore Business Improvement Association (NSBIA) chose to not be directly involved in street management, leaving that to agencies like ASK Wellness.

“We had a couple of CAP Team guys, they were great kids, but they’re 19, they’re in their first job,” he said on the NL Morning News.

“We’re teaching them some street management skills but really from a life skills point of view, we’re a little hesitant to put those kids back on the street this year, so we’ve actually backed away from the CAP team for that specific purpose.”

Heighton says instead of acting as middle-managers, NSBIA staff will also direct people’s concerns – including needle pickup – directly to enforcement agencies.

“Last year we collected a lot of information and passed it along,” Heighton said. “We are going to retool our program to make sure that all of that feedback that we get goes directly into those agencies so there’s a much more comprehensive understanding of what’s going on in the street.”

“Along with the ASK Wellness street outreach team, the city of Kamloops is also working on a whole new program in regards to their bylaw officers. Community policing are working on a new program in regards to how they manage some of these issues, so we are going to be working closely with those organizations.”

CAP team members picked up over 2,000 needles last year both downtown and on the North Shore.

After being launched downtown, the CAP Team operated on the North Shore in 2018 and 2019 thanks for $25,000 grants from the city in each of those years.