Stock image of a security vehicle on Sunset/Missing Link Security

By Glenn Hicks

Aggressive behavior

Security officers attacked ‘with knives and bats’

May 7, 2025 | 5:15 PM

A local security company says it’s seeing a significant spike in the number of homeless in the downtown core and a higher level of aggression amongst this population.

This after Missing Link Security reported two of their officers were attacked with knives and bats by trespassers at a business on Commerce Avenue in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The company said the officers were injured but managed to detain the assailants until police arrived. RCMP said two arrests were made and the investigation is ongoing. No charges had been laid as of Wednesday.

General Manager of Missing Link Security, Tim Teeple, told Vernon Matters their officers are regularly encountering aggressive situations.

“What we’re seeing is a spike in activity that has been taking place over the last eight weeks,” he said, noting this recent spike is representative of what he called ‘larger roving volumes’ and higher levels of aggression.

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Teeple explained security officers patrol a core base of businesses in the downtown and area and have recently set up a client group representing the Sunset Drive and downtown core.

“The goal [of our patrols] is removal [ of trespassers] to ensure the site is clear of any unauthorized individuals or homeless,” he said. “Quite often we find encampments of them where we’ll encounter groups of them roving, more so in volume nowadays, and this is what we encountered at this location.”

Teeple said many homeless people carry weapons – a bat, machete, club – adding “…whether that’s for self-defence or to aggressively initiate a situation, I guess, depends on the individual. What we’re seeing is, while we were aware of the possession of these items before, they very rarely came out, certainly not to the extent they are now, when they are challenged.”

Asked if he thought the spike in aggression was related to the recent dismantling of the homeless tent encampment on the Kelowna rail trail, Teeple said the timing seemed related but could not say if there was a direct correlation in the uptick in violent behavior.

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