Smithers Citizens on Patrol is looking for reinforcements.
The volunteer organization is at an all-time low said coordinator Bruce Bobick, who, along with his wife Marg and another couple, are pretty much it at the moment.
Just over two years ago, the Smithers group was the envy of other towns.
“When I go out of town to larger centres and talk to other community police officers and tell them that our volunteer base is 25 people if we include Crime Stoppers and Speed Watch, their minds are blown,” said Matt Davey, community policing officer at a luncheon honouring the volunteers in November 2019.
Davey told The Interior News recently that has changed dramatically.
“COVID has been brutal,” he said, noting that it has hit volunteering of all kinds hard.
“So, the last couple of years, we have really not done a lot, and I fear it may be the death knell for some of our volunteering.”
Davey figures there could be some other factors at play, such as a decline in crime, also pandemic-related.
“I think people probably have a pretty decent sense of safety in Smithers,” he said.
But that is precisely the point of a strong Citizens on Patrol program in the community, he explained.
“It’s not that we get so many people in the act, but it’s a presence,” he said.
“People see the vehicle. It also gives some ownership; it shows that the community has taken an active role in their own safety. We’re not just putting it all on the RCMP.”
He also noted it is a great help to him in the community policing office and to the RCMP because aside from keeping an eye out for crime, the volunteers also collect a lot of valuable information.
“So, let’s say they go out three or four weeks in a row and they are continually reporting how we’re seeing cars all over the place with the windows down, keys in the ignition parked all over town.
“Then that says to me, hey, you know what, maybe we need to do some programming around that, vehicle security and safety.”
The group has helped police in apprehending suspects, however, and have the means to contact police while on patrol.
“The only thing is, I want to make clear, that they’re not to engage, they’re not to stop the commission of a crime,” he said.
“They’re there to observe, record and report. Like the neighborhood watch thing.”