Left: Doug Fehr (COPP), left, receives a $1,000 donation from Nissar Khan, TD Canada Trust North Battleford branch manager; and right: Fehr presents to North Battleford council. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

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Citizens on Patrol Program group discusses strategic plan

Sep 15, 2022 | 12:00 PM

The Battlefords Citizens on Patrol Program (COPP) hopes to continue to raise awareness of the group’s work after recently completing a new strategic plan.

The non-profit gave an update on its activities at North Battleford council’s meeting this week, after previously giving a report at the Town of Battleford’s meeting.

Vice Chair Doug Fehr said the local group that has been running for over 25 years is comprised of volunteer citizens over the age of 18.

“Our vision is to support crime-free communities where everyone feels safe and secure,” he said.

The group takes part in vehicular patrols in the Battlefords looking for suspicious activity in an effort to prevent crime. If the members see anything of concern, they report it to the RCMP and do not intervene personally.

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“Our patrols occur any time of the day and any time of week, and focus on the higher crime areas as outlined in the RCMP crime statistics provided to us,” Fehr said.

Overall the group, with currently about 12 active members, provides around 100 patrols a year in total. One of its strategic priorities is to boost membership to be able to have more patrols.

Fehr said ideally the group would like to have 125 volunteers. Volunteers are asked to commit to 12 patrols a year, running three to four hours each.

“We don’t chase after the bad guys, we just phone them in,” he added.

Some of the activities the group will report on include possible impaired driving, suspected break and enters, gang graffiti tags, suspected drug dealing, and suspicious car shopping.

The COPP is trying to increase awareness about its work to encourage more people to register their outdoor security cameras with the COPP, in case any crime happens in their neighbourhoods.

Fehr said the non-profit will once again be applying for funding through the city’s Community Development Financial Assistance Program to help with its expenses and appreciates any help from the city.

During council’s meeting Fehr announced that North Battleford Mayor David Gillan recently volunteered his personal time to take part in the group’s patrols, and thanked him for his efforts.

From the business community, Nissar Khan, TD Canada Trust North Battleford branch manager, made a donation of $1,000 to the group and said he has signed up as a volunteer also.

“It’s something I always wanted to do where I live,” he said.

Khan said he hopes to have some of his colleagues sign up as volunteers to show their support also.

Mayor Gillan took the opportunity to commend Khan for his dedication as well as his corporate sponsorship.

“We hope the other banks downtown will also join in your efforts and we will get more people in the community to come out and support [the COPP],” Gillan said. “This is grassroots crime prevention. A city of this size needs to have at least a 50 to 100 complement [of volunteers]. If we compare ourselves to Lloydminster, they have that already.”

He said having a COPP group with lots of volunteers and support can help bring down the crime stats.

“That’s what we have to do,” Gillan said.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow