Victoria Police are gutting their cold case section, removing the detectives dedicated to solving Michael Dunahee’s disappearance and other old crimes.

The redeployment will allow the department to add four domestic violence investigators.

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Two officers broke the news to Michael’s parents, Bruce and Crystal Dunahee, at their home Wednesday. “We’re disappointed but we understand,” Bruce said Thursday, adding they were told the department will still follow up on any new tips.

Four-year-old Michael disappeared from a playground at Blanshard Elementary School on March 24, 1991.

The cold case section — five officers and a civilian — is expected to be pared to just one investigator by year’s end.

While some applaud adding domestic violence officers, others are troubled that the four will be working within VicPD, not the regional Domestic Violence Unit. Critics fear local police departments are drifting away from the specialized integrated units set up to combat crimes that cross municipal borders.

The Domestic Violence Unit, which brings together police, victims services and child-support workers to follow up on high-risk cases, was created in 2010 after a review of a 2007 Oak Bay murder-suicide.

Victim Sunny Park had complained about domestic violence to three municipal police departments but the lack of a co-ordinated response left her vulnerable to further violence. Peter Lee killed Park, their six-year-old son, Christian, and Park’s parents before killing himself in their home.

Victoria police came under fire for withdrawing one of their two officers in the Domestic Violence Unit in February 2013. Tracy Porteous, executive director of the Ending Violence Association of B.C., said it’s good that Victoria police will have four specialized domestic violence investigators but she’d also like the return of the second officer to the regional team.

Victoria deputy police chief Del Manak said the four investigators will ease the pressure on front-line officers who are struggling to keep up with the 120 to 130 domestic abuse cases every month.

Manak said the addition of the four should prevent domestic violence cases from escalating to the point that they are assigned to the regional team, which handles only the most serious files.

He said Victoria police are committed to keeping one officer in the regional team.

“We believe in it, we’re committed to it and we’re not removing our services from that unit. So that unit is not in danger of collapsing,” Manak said.

This week the Times Colonist broke the news that the highly successful Regional Crime Unit, which targets prolific offenders, is disbanding because Greater Victoria municipalities have one-by-one dropped their support.

After withdrawing its four officers from the Regional Crime Unit in 2009, VicPD set up its own nine-person crime-reduction unit, which has made several high-profile arrests. The resources Saanich dedicates to the Regional Crime Unit will be redirected to its own street crime unit.

Esquimalt Coun. David Hodgins, who has long called for a single regional police force, said as long as the province allows municipalities to cherry-pick which integrated units they’ll join and what their contribution will be, Greater Victoria will continue to have a fractured system.

“Politics gets put ahead of public safety.”

kderosa@timescolonist.com