I just spent the last two days in Victoria, the capital city of this province, and I had an interesting observation. I stayed mainly in the touristy downtown area for my two days and not once during my time there did I see a uniformed member or patrol car of the Victoria police department.
I’m not sure if that’s weird or not. On one hand, the downtown area of Victoria is full of tourists and shops, so you’d think that the city police would have some presence there. Then again, if it’s mainly tourists, maybe there’s not a lot of trouble to be had. I just keep thinking that in the downtown Vancouver area, you wouldn’t need to walk around for two days before seeing members of the Vancouver police department. Of course, downtown Vancouver and downtown Victoria are two different places with very different problems.
I’m also wondering if there were lots of plainclothes members out and about in Victoria and I just didn’t notice them. Perhaps that was the reason I didn’t think there was much of a police presence. In that case, they did an excellent job of keeping out of sight while making sure things were safe. Indeed, I felt safe during my entire short stay in Victoria, both during the day and night.