Calls for the Car 40 mental heath service in Kamloops spiked in the first half of this year.

There were 488 calls, which is a 36 per cent jump compared to the first half of 2019.

Mayor Ken Christian says there’s a need to expand the service, since only one car operates from Tuesday to Friday.

“We believe this is something that we want on the streets of Kamloops. There is some notion with the Interior Health Authority’s mental health division that they have other mechanisms by which they would more accurately deploy their people. That may be their opinion, but our opinion remains. That we need additional Car 40 services in the City of Kamloops.”

Councillor Dale Bass shared the new data on callouts with other council members, pointing out that shows only a portion of total mental health calls to all agencies.

She repeated that council and the Kamloops RCMP want the service to be expanded.

“When I talked to Superintendent (Syd) Lecky, he says one more would be helpful, one more would be necessary. Car 40 as it exists now can handle a percentage of the calls. Another car could handle a larger percentage of the calls.”

Council voted last week to have staff assess the hours for the Car 40 service with stakeholders, including police and Interior Health.