West Shore Watch
The West Shore Watch takes you behind the scenes with West Shore RCMP officers – giving you an inside look at how we serve our community.
Table of Contents
- West Shore Watch - Joint response
- West Shore Watch - Calls for service
- West Shore Watch: Start a shift with General Duty
West Shore Watch - Joint response
Join as West Shore RCMP’s Cst. Andrew Matheson responds to a joint call for service with the Victoria Police Department near the border of Victoria and the West Shore.
Transcript - West Shore Watch - Joint response
[West Shore Watch]
[Siren noises in background]
[Cst. Andrew Matheson driving with lights and sirens to call]
Cst. Andrew Matheson: So we’re responding to a male with a knife, a big kitchen knife, I guess has brandished it at some people and may have kicked in a door to a residence.
[Dashboard view from police car, driving down highway with other vehicles pulling over to let police car through]
[Radio chatter in background]
Cst. Matheson: This is right on the boarder between our jurisdiction and Victoria Police so we’re trying to work with Vic PD to try to locate this individual.
[Dashboard view from police car, driving down highway with other vehicles pulling over to let police car through]
Cst. Matheson: So our suspect may have kicked in the door to a residences and they think they might be hiding in there.
So it sounds like there are some Victoria Police dogs that are trying to get him out or call him out.
So what you are hearing now, anytime there’s anything urgent or high risk happening, dispatch can put that tone up over the air that lets every member on the radio know that, not to communicate anything unless it’s urgent or related to what’s going on.
So because we’re on Victoria Police…
Radio: We have somebody inside, but we can’t tell if it’s the SOC or just an occupant.
Cst. Matheson: We’re on Victoria Police’s radio frequency right now so there’s a lot of members potentially working, just a reminder for them to not transmit unless they absolutely have to.
[Cst. Matheson standing near building with Victoria Police Department Officer]
[Three Victoria Police Officers, one Victoria Police K9, and one RCMP Officer standing near door of residence]
Victoria Police Officer: Police Department. You’re under arrest, exit the house now. Come down stairs now. Exit the house with nothing in your hands.
[Cst. Matheson standing near building with two Victoria Police Department Officers]
Victoria Police Officer: You’re doing good, keep coming.
[Cst. Matheson walking down path. Two Victoria Police Officers walk with Subject of Complaint handcuffed]
[Cst. Matheson driving in car after incident.]
Cst. Matheson: This was an interesting one because the offence occurred over the board, into Victoria’s jurisdiction. But like the line is literally a street.
So on one side of the street it’s Victoria’s jurisdiction and on the other side of the street it’s ours.
So the offence occurred on the Victoria side, then our suspect ran across the street into his residence which is on our side.
Which is why, one of the reasons, we responded.
By the time I got there, Victoria Police had contained the residence and we’re in the process of calling him out.
He came out of his own accord and was taken into custody by Victoria.
They are now lead on the weapons investigation.
Ultimately there’s not too much that’s required of us but when these things are close to the boarder, it’s good to have officers from both sides there just for kind of communication and control purposes.
And if anything does spill over into our side, we can be there to assist or take over if need be.
So ultimately everything went pretty smoothly.
He surrendered and was arrested, and they are going to start conducting their investigation and look at, I guess, charging him with whatever weapons offences they deem fit.
It was a high risk response, but everything turned out great.
[West Shore RCMP. Victoria Police.]
West Shore Watch - Calls for service
On November 4, 2025, West Shore RCMP officers answered 75 calls for service in a 12-hour shift – between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Join Cst. Andrew Matheson as he responds to some of these calls.
Transcript - West Shore Watch - Calls for service
[Opening page reads: On November 4, 2025, West Shore RCMP officers answered 75 calls for service in a 12 hour shift – between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.]
[Cst. Matheson driving in the patrol car.]
[Text on screen: 10:50 a.m. – Neighbour Dispute Report]
Cst. Matheson: We are heading to knock on a door to try and speak with a gentleman regarding an altercation between neighbors that occurred last night.
Supposedly a fellow mistook his neighbour for someone casing his house and came out and confronted him in the street with a flashlight. Got right in his face and things got pretty tense.
And the caller wanted us to just go have a word with him and you know document the occurrence in case anything escalates.
And you know I just want to go have a chat with him.
Hopefully identify him and kind of hopefully set both of their minds at ease.
[Text on screen: Speaking with Neighbour]
[Cst Matheson standing outside and speaking to the neighbour in person.]
Cst. Matheson: So he’s a neighbour he lives in the area
Neighbour: oh, okay
Cst. Matheson: So he’s walking his dogs I guess, and he does them one at a time. So I’m guessing that why you saw him multiple times.
[Close up of police radio.]
Cst. Matheson: He wanted me to let you know that he lives in the area and you have nothing to worry about if you see that guy again.
Male: You couldn’t get much more innocent than that.
Cst. Matheson: *laughs* exactly.
[Text on screen: Updating Neighbour / Caller]
[Cst Matheson back in the police car on the phone updating the caller.]
Cst. Matheson: I let him know the circumstances. I think yah he was just concerned that you were some sort of thief or something.
He’s obviously a very security minded person but um, he apologized and he wanted to let you know that he understands, and he’s relieved to hear that you’re just a neighbour
and if anything, else does happen or escalate your always welcome to give us a call.
[Cst. Matheson driving the patrol car.]
Cst. Matheson: We deal with neighbour disputes pretty frequently. Not all of them are things that we can solve.
[Text on screen: Write Report on Incident]
[Montage of Cst. Matheson typing on police in car computer.]
Cst. Matheson: When you’re talking about neighbour disputes you’re talking about personality differences, and sort of personal clashes
and you know they are very frequently not anything that police can really get involved in.
But we still like to try at least to mediate or try and resolve things when they’re small before they spiral out of control.
[Text on screen: 12:30 p.m. – Report of Break and Enter]
[Cst. Matheson driving in patrol car.]
Cst. Matheson: We are going a report of a break and enter to I believe either a shed or a workshop in someone’s backyard in Langford.
A fellow I guess checked his shed on Sunday night and everything was all good.
Checked it again this morning and found that a big wood lathe and some furniture was stolen.
[Cst. Matheson walking around and examining the inside of the shed that was broken into.]
Cst. Matheson: So we are going to go down there and see if there’s any cameras or any evidence left at the scene that might give us any indication of who the suspects are.
So when we’re coming to sites like these ideally, we’re looking for physical evidence, things left behind that may have a fingerprint on them. You know a tool, a knife, something like that ideally.
Sometimes it’s tough without surveillance video which we’re going to go look for next.
[Text on screen: Audio from Video Canvas]
[Cst. Matheson walking around the property.]
Cst. Matheson: You guys have any video cameras point out onto the street eh?
Neighbour: No, not going that far
[Text on screen: 2:05 p.m. – Suspicious Person Report]
Cst. Matheson: Dispatch from 5 3, what’s the description of our SOC?
Dispatch: Description- Caucasian male, 50’s, 5’11, slim to medium build.
Complaint saw the male in her backyard walking towards her shed.
Cst. Matheson: Potentially we have a gentleman who is apparently walking in and around people’s yards and properties.
Dispatch: Wearing red plaid with a green hood.
Cst. Matheson: Copy, wearing red plaid with a green hood.
[Text on screen: Subject of Complaint Detained]
[Cst. Matheson at the scene on a sidewalk detaining the subject of complaint by placing handcuffs on them.]
Cst. Matheson: You’re detained, okay for trespassing.
Subject of Complaint: Can I talk to you?
Cst. Matheson: Yup, you will once the handcuff are on okay.
I will happily listen to whatever you have to say.
Okay you don’t have to say anything to me anything you say may be used as evidence okay.
[Cst. Matheson searching the Subject of Complaints pockets.]
Cst. Matheson: Keys, is this beer?
Subject of complaint: I live on the other side of the block
Cst. Matheson: Do you? Okay.
[Text on Screen: Run Checks on Subject of Complaint]
[Cst. Matheson running checks on his computer inside the patrol car.]
[Standing outside the car speaking with another officer.]
Cst. Matheson: He says he’s trying to cut through a yard, he thinks his cousins’ house is around there somewhere.
He’s only been there once or twice, so he doesn’t remember the address.
[Cst. Matheson back in the patrol car driving.]
Cst. Matheson: Ah well we were able to locate and detain our suspect male. He provided the story that he was looking for his cousins’ house that he’s only been to a couple of times and like trying to cut through maybe a yard or something to get there.
He had had a couple of drinks. Not super intoxicated but you know obviously enough to maybe not make the best decisions.
Once we had him in custody, we followed up with our callers just to nail down exactly what they saw and get it straight from the horses mouth.
What exactly was he doing there? And their stories were pretty consistent with the story he gave us.
We warned him about that sort of behaviour in the future but at the end of the day the person he’s looking for does seem to live on that street.
So, no real offence was committed so we released him with just a warning to be more mindful of his behaviour and the optics in the future and sent him on his way.
And everyone was happy that it wasn’t anything more serious than it seemed to be.
West Shore Watch: Start a shift with General Duty
Join West Shore RCMP’s Cst. Andrew Matheson as he starts his morning working a shift as a General Duty Officer.
Transcript - West Shore Watch: Start a shift with General Duty
[West Shore RCMP]
Cst. Matheson: I start at 7 in the morning. So, part of my job, with the way that our shifts work, means that I have to be totally ready in my uniform, signed into my car, all geared up at 7 o’clock at the start of my shift. Ready to take calls. That usually involves obviously getting my uniform on, making sure all my gear is present and accounted for, everything is working. And then getting signed into a vehicle.
[Cst. Matheson driving in his police vehicle, talking to the camera]
Cst. Matheson: I go into the armoury, draw a police car, a set of keys off the board in there. Make sure that all of our weapons and gear that we’re going to be needing for the day are on hand. Then you check the vehicle. We check to make sure that the lights are all functioning as well. It's pretty delicate electrical system so we like to check those regularly just to make sure everything is functioning. And then at 7 o’clock once we’re signed into our computers and logged on the board, we have a briefing. At briefing we will go over, with the entire detachment, everything that happened basically in the previous shift.
[Text on screen reads: 7:00 AM – Morning Briefing]
[Cst. Matheson conducts safety checks of his patrol carbine]
[Cst. Matheson walks to his police vehicle carrying his gear]
[Cst. Matheson walks around his police vehicle, inspecting all the emergency lights]
[Cst. Matheson inspects the back seat on the police vehicle]
Cst. Matheson: So in the morning we’ll hear about some of the major calls that the night shift dealt with just in case we have to do any follow up on them. If there’s any further work that needs to be done. And sometimes things that happen at night, tend to flair up in the morning. So having a little bit of familiarity with the parties or the circumstances can be helpful for the day shift. So, the first thing we do when we sign in in the morning is to first of all check the unit status so I can see what every other police officer is doing. If there’s anybody that looks like they are over time, somebody from night shift still working, and I can relieve them or help them out that’s usually the first thing I’ll do. Next you check the que to see if there’s any calls waiting that need to be dealt with. At this point there is nothing, so we are free to do as we please.
[Officers and civilian staff sitting at tables, listening to morning briefing at West Shore RCMP detachment]
[Close up of police officer listening to morning briefing]
[Close up of police officer listing to morning briefing]
[Close up of police officer standing at podium, leading morning briefing]
[Cst. Matheson in police vehicle, making notes in notebook]
Cst. Matheson: So we are in the school zone at View Royal Elementary School. We like to come out here in the mornings and just be visible, keep traffic calm, and make sure that people are obeying the crossing guards.
[Cst. Matheson working on MDT / laptop in police vehicle while speaking to the camera]
[Text on screen reads: 8:15 AM – School Zones]
[Police vehicle pulled over near a crosswalk outside of View Royal Elementary School.]
[Close up of Cst. Matheson standing with crossing guard]
[Cst. Matheson watching cars driving in school zones with a crossing guard beside him]
[Speed radar in police vehicle displaying speeds]
[West Shore RCMP]
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