A recommendation out of a coroner's inquest last week to amalgamate the capital region's patchwork of police departments could have been much stronger, said Victoria police Chief Jamie Graham.

Still, he's convinced it will happen. Eventually.

On Sept. 4, 2007, Peter Lee stabbed to death his son Christian, his wife Sunny Park, and her parents Kum Lea Chun and Moon Kyu Park.

Three police departments were involved in her complaints of spousal abuse before the incident, and three responded to her family's massacre. That led to confusion documented throughout a 12-day inquest into the grisly murder-suicide that concluded last week.

In the first of 14 recommendations rendered Friday, the jury suggested the "continued unification efforts of the various police departments."

Victoria police Insp. Clark Russell, who has spearheaded a proposal for one domestic-violence unit in the region, sat through the entire inquest, which spanned nearly two years because of long delays.

Afterward, he said: "We've got amalgamation, regionalization, integration -- and now, [a proposal for] unification."

Russell wasn't sure how to interpret the recommendation.

Graham said he, too, would have preferred "stronger, more specific language dealing with regionalization" on south Vancouver Island, but otherwise is "very pleased with the recommendations."

Graham said he believes a single police force serving citizens from the tip of the Saanich Peninsula to Oak Bay and out to the West Shore is just years away. He said he is optimistic the jury's recommendations and the gruesome incident itself will give the province increased support to force the issue.

Many police services in the region are already integrated.

"I think we are at the stage that if there's political will to move in this direction, I think this could be interesting," Graham said.

He expects the government will review the recommendations and make a statement.

"I honesty feel a regional solution is in the cards," Graham said.

Graham also wants to see a single dispatch communications centre. Currently, there are three: in Victoria, Saanich and the West Shore.

When Chun called 9-1-1 from her daughter's King George Terrace home in Oak Bay, her call was rerouted to Victoria because of a glitch, and then sent back to Saanich, which dispatches calls for Oak Bay.

Chun was screaming throughout her call about someone "trying to kill us." As the message was relayed from dispatcher to dispatcher, "the horror of the call" was lost in translation, Russell testified during the inquest.

The jury also recommended that the region's four municipal police forces and three RCMP detachments form a single specialized domestic violence unit.

Solictor General Kash Heed said last week that if he doesn't see movement on this front, he will "move it along."

"I'm very encouraged by that," Graham said.

When Lee stabbed to death his family, the Oak Bay, Saanich and Victoria departments all lacked domestic-violence units.

Saanich had a family-violence program with a full-time civilian counsellor, but that person was not dedicated solely to domestic-violence cases.

Since that time, the Victoria Police Department has assigned a sergeant and constable to a domestic-violence unit — ready to roll out in January — while Saanich has beefed up its family protection unit, which has a relationship violence co-ordinator.

Oak Bay has not made any changes on the domestic-violence front, according to testimony during the inquest.

“There is no more serious investigations aside from homicides than domestic- violence cases,” Graham said.

The jury also recommended global funding to cover the costs of its recommendations. On that note, Graham said he is not optimistic the province will foot the bill.

ceharnett@tc.canwest.com