Todd Daniels has been thrust into the spotlight lately.

In a way, the owner of Gallery Streetwear in downtown Kelowna has become the face of a desperate plea for action to rein in the criminal activity that is plaguing businesses in the area.

“I’m just trying to survive,” the exasperated Daniels told KelownaNow video host Jim Csek during a recent interview. “I’ve wanted to do this shop for probably 20 (or) 30 years and I put everything into it.”
 

It’s been just over a week since Daniels shared a video to the Gallery Streetwear social media pages that went viral locally and caught people’s attention provincewide.

He shared those thoughts publicly after his business was broken to in the early hours of Jan. 2. In addition, a Gallery Streetwear employee was recently attacked with bear spray and chased by a knife-wielding man in separate incidents.

Daniels says the video led to a visit from Mayor Tom Dyas, who provided information on various initiatives at different levels of government to try and solve the issue.

While the Kelowna business owner appreciates the gesture from Dyas, he’s looking for action over promises and admits he’s seen a bigger police presence around his shop in recent days.

However, the increased presence during the day, while encouraging, is not doing much to prevent break-ins and other criminal activity at night.

Photo Credit: Gallery StreetwearTodd Daniels' business was broken into at 2 am, which increased daytime patrols won't do anything to prevent.

Dyas also told Daniels about a pilot program regarding increased police surveillance for five people responsible for the most active police files.

He believes that number needs to be much bigger than five and expressed a bit of frustration that the solution is surveillance rather than a more preventative form of legal intervention.

"We all live under some kind of societal code and structure, so why don't other people?"

Daniels says he doesn’t want Kelowna’s beautiful downtown core to “get like East Hastings” in Vancouver and he believes the issues plaguing the area right now are fixable.

“We are a community and it’s not about finger pointing. We gotta come to the table and we have to work together,” he said. “But it needs to be done now and we need sustained effort now.”

The RCMP is holding a press conference regarding “the recent social disorder incidents” in downtown Kelowna early Tuesday afternoon, which will be broadcast to KelownaNow’s social media channels.