RCMP Constable Kory Hendricks has been waiting four years to call Bowen Island home, and after five weeks, says he is settling in and getting accustomed to the speed limit. Having grown up in the prairies, Hendricks says he never imagined he would live by the ocean, but he and his wife were wooed by a trip to Mayne Island, and then focused on Bowen after it was recommended to them.
“When I was in Keremeos, I mentioned that I was looking into an island posting to Constable Mark Fulton. He told me, ‘You have to get Bowen on HR’s radar, I loved it there.’”
When Hendrick’s initial request did not work out, he accepted a posting to Texada Island. He says that so far, Bowen is something of a mix between Texada and one of his other previous postings, Summerland, BC.
“In Texada, there are many people who’ve lived there their whole lives, and there are numerous generations of many families. That makes for a very connected community,” he says. “It’s the tourism on Bowen that reminds me of Peachland, although the tourists are different here. On Bowen, a lot of families come to visit. You don’t get the people who are just coming here to drink and party.”
When asked about policing on Texada, Hendricks says that the work was mostly “general policing” which including traffic violations, impaired driving, domestic disputes, and so on.
“The one thing that makes Texada different is that it is a very attractive place to grow marijuana. We would work with a team called SABO that would find grow operations from the air and give the co-ordinates to the Armed Forces and to us as well. The Armed Forces would get dropped from helicopters to destroy the plants on Crown Land, and we would go and finish the job from the ground.”
Hendricks adds that he his enjoyed his three years of island life on Texada, even with the challenges of ferry travel and isolation (eight hours to Vancouver, and four hours to the nearest town with shopping). He says that although he is definitely not a city boy, he and his family are enjoying the amenities that exist because of Bowen’s close proximity to Vancouver.
