He’s dealt with bad guys in a number of different situations in a nearly 29-year career with the RCMP, but even Insp. Reg Burgess admits applying for the position of Vernon’s top cop was one of the toughest things he’s been through.

Burgess, interim detachment commander in Vernon since June following the departure of Supt. Steve McVarnock to head the RCMP’s Nunavut division, had the interim label removed this week.

“I’m very happy to announce I was the successful candidate for the detachment command position in Vernon,” said Burgess at a media gathering Monday at the Vernon detachment.

“It was a tough process. There was good competition. I was one of five short-listed, all good people, and I was quite fortunate to come out on top.”

Burgess had been a district officer, in which Vernon was part of his jurisdiction, for two years, based out of Kelowna, when he took over from McVarnock, so he’s quite familiar with the Vernon office and the North Okanagan region.

He praised the efforts of his predecessor, and said he plans to put his own personal stamp on the detachment.

“I will try to maintain the detachment the way it is,” said Burgess. “Steve’s position was crime reduction initiatives, and I see there’s work I can do there.

“Steve got us to the point we have capacity (staff) and we can now implement successful crime reduction programs and initiatives alrady working throughout district and division. But there’s more room. He was concentrating on grow-ops and crack shacks in town. I want to work more with prolific offenders, not just on the enforcement side, but all the initiatives that go with that.”

Burgess plans on targeting individual persons who are very active criminally, and getting them involved with social programs or support they need. If the criminals choose not to seek help, they will be dealt with through the courts.

“Some of that will be downtown patrols, some doing curfew checks and ensuring that people are obeying their (court-ordered) conditions and following up on counselling,” said Burgess, who plans to ask the City of Vernon for some more staffing to help with the prolific offenders programs and initiatives he wants to implement.

Burgess is expected to be promoted to superintendent later this month.