(File photo/ battlefordsNOW)

By Kenneth Cheung

TACKLING CRIME

Battlefords Citizens on Patrol hopes community volunteers will help keep crime in check

Sep 17, 2024 | 2:23 PM

Battleford Citizens on Patrol (COPP) hopes community members will join its security camera registry program and volunteer for its patrols to help tackle crime and keep the city and town in check.

Doug Fehr, the chairperson of COPP, pointed out during the town council meeting on Monday that 425 cameras in the Battlefords are registered for the outdoor security registry program. Nearby in the Town of Battleford, however, they need more help from the community, as only 41 cameras are registered.

“The purpose is to help the RCMP resolve crimes more quickly and hopefully bring a quicker resolution for the property owner,” Fehr said in the council meeting.

Fehr previously told BattlefordsNOW that they had helped the RCMP gather more than 300 outdoor security footage with owners’ permission in their first year to assist with investigations.

“I think there’s a lot of pre-conceived notions that the RCMP can just come and take your camera anytime they want, or the data within your camera, which is not true. The RCMP will come and ask you, and if you say no, then, then they will go away,” said Ames Leslie, mayor of Battleford.

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During the meeting, Fehr also pointed out that they see positive growth within the organization, as they now have 28 volunteers across the community. He pointed out that they only had around 12 volunteers three years ago with three active patrollers.

“The growth that citizen patrols have had the last few years is very respectable. They bring an extra set of eyes, an extra set of ears, to our community,” said Leslie.

Fehr mentioned that by the end of June, they had patrolled over 17,000 blocks in the Battlefords and planned to cover around 10,000 blocks in the upcoming third quarter. He further pointed out that their patrol routes usually follow the RCMP’s Hot Spots document to ensure coverage of all the relatively high-crime areas.

“It guides our patrollers on what properties and areas to go to, which supplements what the RCMP provides us when we check in at the detachment before leaving on patrol,” Fehr said.

Fehr pointed out that they allocate much of their time to Finlayson Island and other industrial park areas. He believes people tend to neglect those areas, making them a place where suspicious activities occur.

“It’s an uncontrolled area that’s got one way in and one way out. So it’s something that we’ve asked the RCMP and the Citizens on Patrol just to do some routine checks. It is an area that if you’re not out there, you have no reason to go out there at night, so we just have them do some patrols and make sure that there are not some unwanted individuals hanging out,” said Leslie.

Fehr continuously stated that their patrol hours are not fixated as they don’t want individuals who want to commit crimes to know the patrols’ patterns.

“Some of us have gone out from two to six in the morning, three to seven in the morning. So we can be out there anytime,” he said.

Anyone can volunteer with the COPP .Learn more at City of North Battleford and Town of Battleford.

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Kenneth.Cheung@pattisonmedia.com