The Nakusp RCMP have welcomed Cpl. Bryson Hill, formerly of the Sunshine Coast detachment, to the community.

Hill, 32, grew up in Gibsons, B.C. on the Sunshine Coast, where he attended elementary school and part of high school.

He never believed that one day he would be a police officer.

“Growing up, I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” says Hill. “In fact I’d stated out loud there’s no way I wanted to be a police officer, but in my quest to find out what I wanted to do, I joined the volunteer fire department, I volunteered for search and rescue and the volunteer ski patrol, just trying to see what I wanted to do.”

In partaking in all these different activities, Hill noticed the police were at the scene wherever he was called out during his volunteer duties, which intrigued him.

“I started to think, ‘Wow, these guys do all the things that I like to do, and who knows what else they get to do,” says Hill, who adds that the job has lived up to its expectations.

He said it allows for a variety of different experiences which generally has him excited to go to work every day. He’s currently been serving with the RCMP for nine and a half years. At the seven-year mark he was promoted to Corporal, which allowed him to stay with the Sunshine Coast detachment longer than the usual term is. After being urged again to find another detachment to serve with, he and his wife found Nakusp was in need and heeded the call.

Hill drove with his wife and two-year old son to Nakusp from Gibsons over two weeks ago. He had never been to Nakusp, and he finds the scenery is beautiful. His reasons for coming to Nakusp varied, but mainly it was because of what he’d heard the community was family-oriented and a good place for a young family.

“Anyone we talked to told us about how positive the community is for young families and young kids. We want to be part of the community,” he explains. Hill’s wife is also a member of the RCMP who is taking the next three years off as she is again pregnant. They decided it would be nice to spend more time on family. The two have been married since 2007 with the three-year anniversary coming in February.

Hill was born in Armstrong and spent a lot of time as a young boy fishing in the Monashee Mountains. Fishing is one of Hill’s hobbies. He did a lot of shell fishing on the coast as well as fishing for salmon, trout and fly-fishing. “Our family goes camping,” he remarks, noting his passion for athletics such as racquet sports, martial arts, hockey, baseball and soccer. “My wife and I are big into sports. Anything athletic I like to do. As a kid I played tennis at the B.C. Games.”

In his first weekend on the job in Nakusp, Hill was able to experience the area by driving to Edgewood for an emergency call and the very next shift driving to the Slocan Valley to aid the New Denver detachment with another emergency call. “I got a real good taste of the stretch of highway we have to deal with,” he says. The coverage area may be large and will take some adjusting, he admits, but being on the Sunshine Coast, he’s used to having a large area – except on the coast he had a lot of islands to patrol which were only accessible via boat.

Coming to the area, Hill has three main ideals he would like to focus on. “One is to be part of the community, to really continue what the members have done sort of prior to me, which is to really be part of the community and everyone knows them, respects them, not just as police but as people.”

Enforcement-wise Hill is big on drug-work, primarily hard drugs such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. While he recognizes these drugs may not be in the area in abundance, it’s still a focus, as are large marijuana grow operations.

“It’s an expertise of mine,” says Hill. “I’m recognized by courts as an expert relating to cocaine and street-level dealing. I’m going to really push that here. Make sure anything that is here, we’re going to be on top of that.”

With no love for major grow operations, Hill says those who operate them will be targeted with the new B.C. law which allows the police to seize property related to the crime, such as houses or cars. “If you’re going to take the time to go out and try and make a profit and not pay taxes, and go to our schools and use our highways ... then you better be prepared for the risk, and the risk is we’re going to seize your house, seize your cars and we’re going to put you in jail if we can. That’s a big focus of mine, to try and make sure people understand that.”

The third focus for Hill is impaired driving. “If I live in a community and have young kids, I want to make sure everyone is safe. It doesn’t matter how nice of a person you are, how well respected you are in the community, it doesn’t matter how great you are; if you’re around drinking and driving, you’re putting others at risk and that’s not acceptable.”