A newly revamped group in Whistler dedicated to security and loss prevention is looking to add new members and beef up information sharing amongst local businesses and police.
Formerly the Whistler Hotel Loss Prevention Association, the new Whistler Security Association has broadened its scope to include any resort businesses that wish to join, and since being revived this spring, has added representation from restaurant and club operators Gibbons Whistler, in addition to its existing hotel members, the RCMP, and Vail Resorts.
Spearheaded by the Westin’s loss prevention manager, Darren Stackhouse, the group hadn’t met throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Bringing an analytical background to the association, Stackhouse is hopeful to increase data collection and information sharing among members on issues of security, theft and fraud.
“My motto is if it’s not written down then it never happened,” he said. “I’m used to collecting statistics on everything and I really feel if as a group we did that, it would allow the RCMP to identify some trends.
“I want to make sure that information is codified in some way so that we can actually do something with it.”
That information sharing would ideally go both ways, Stackhouse hopes.
“I think it would be useful,” said Whistler RCMP Cpl. Nate Miller. “I think mainly it’s about just keeping each other in the loop and educated on what we’re seeing in our community as police, and what they’re seeing in their establishments, and then working together towards stopping those problems. That could be through education or training. As long as we’re on the same page, then we could definitely improve as a group.”
Along with its usual emphasis on petty crime, Stackhouse wants the association to tackle larger issues as well, like organized crime and sex trafficking.
“These are the kinds of things that we want to prepare for, not that they’re happening, but having the education is important,” he said.
The group’s scope doesn’t have to be relegated to crime either. Stackhouse wants members to share information and strategies on emergency planning, information that would be more applicable to hotels, but could be shared with the wider business community as well.
Criminal trends have shifted somewhat during the pandemic. While he didn’t have stats to back this up, anecdotally at least, Miller said there has been a rise in fraudulent transactions in the resort, while bike theft has become more sophisticated.
“Obviously this time of year, we haven’t seen a spike in it yet, but bike theft always increases with visitors coming to town, with that many more bikes being stored and secured in all our areas,” he said. “But the Lower Mainland bike thieves know that and start coming up usually in the summer months when the bike park is open.”
Like most local jobs, there is a relative shortage of security guards in Whistler, another challenge facing the association.
“We don’t have a lot of contract security in Whistler, so if ever we need an extra guard for a night or two, we often have to bring them up from Squamish or Vancouver,” he said. “It’s a difficult situation, so contract security is a concern for us. We have in-house security but not a lot of other hotels can afford that, so oftentimes they do have to rely on contract security. We’d love to see some more up here.”
The Whistler Security Association meets bimonthly and is open to all local businesses.
