Shuswap area is an great alternative - Housing too pricey for police officers.

West Vancouver has become such an expensive place to live that its police force may soon have trouble recruiting new officers -- and preventing those already hired from leaving, Police Chief Scott Armstrong warned the police board five months before he was fired.

In a July 24 internal memo, obtained by The Vancouver Sun through the Freedom of Information Act, Armstrong warned the board it has become nearly impossible for West Vancouver officers to live in the community they serve.

"West Vancouver is so expensive there is no reasonable hope for any junior officers to live in this community," he wrote. "It is unlikely that our officers could ever afford to live on the North Shore given current housing prices and the fact that most of our officers have just graduated from university and are paying back large student loans."

As a result, he noted, some officers were being tempted to take jobs closer to where many of them live: the Fraser Valley.

And Armstrong warned it was a problem that would likely only get worse as baby boomers retire and "police departments become more and more desperate for qualified candidates."

A West Vancouver officer with three years of service earns about $70,000 a year.

The median price for a detached home in West Vancouver is now about $1.2 million.

In comparison, the median in Abbotsford is $370,000.

In an interview last week, West Vancouver Police Insp. Bob Fontaine -- who is responsible for recruiting -- acknowledged the cost of living is a problem.

"There aren't many members who can afford to live on the North Shore," said Fontaine. "We've got people who have commuted from Langley for 20 years or from Squamish for 25."

Indeed, of West Vancouver's 86 officers, only six actually live in the district -- and most of them are senior officers who bought their homes decades ago.

Another 30 live in North Vancouver.

Armstrong's memo notes high house prices and long commutes aren't the only reasons officers are leaving West Vancouver.

Some leave because they don't find West Vancouver's low crime rate stimulating enough.

"If constables want a large city policing experience with a high crime rate they likely would choose Vancouver," he writes.

And some leave because they want to work on special units -- such as a marine squad or emergency response team -- which West Vancouver doesn't have.

Fontaine said that aside from retirements, about two officers leave the force each year -- most to the RCMP or other Lower Mainland police departments.

And Fontaine said West Vancouver rarely gets officers from other forces -- meaning most of its new hires must be trained from scratch, at a cost of more than $30,000.

Ed Pearce, president of the West Vancouver Police Association, said retention is "probably our number-one concern."

"It's pretty taxing to have those kind of numbers [of officers] walk out the door," he said.

Armstrong's memo contained several suggestions for addressing the recruiting problem, but they were blacked out in the copy provided to The Sun.

Fontaine said the force has taken several steps to address the issue, including scheduling early shifts to make commutes easier and a mentoring program to connect new recruits with more senior officers.

West Vancouver Mayor Pam Goldsmith-Jones, who chairs the police board, declined a request for an interview last week.

Armstrong was fired by the police board in December following a series of controversies at the department. One involved an officer who was arrested for impaired driving after drinking at a police-station get-together.

Goldsmith-Jones has refused to say why Armstrong was fired other than he failed to meet certain performance standards, which she has not disclosed.

(prepared by Chad Skeleton/Vancouver Sun)