INNISFAIL – After a nine-year break a local Citizens on Patrol may soon be back on the streets.
Innisfail RCMP Staff Sgt. Ian Ihme, the detachment commander, told an audience at the town hall on May 9 that he was fond of the Citizens on Patrol (COP) program, noting the early success of the Penhold chapter that has been running since 2021.
“The Penhold Citizens on Patrol is very vibrant out in the community and doing lots of things,” said Ihme. “It's definitely the kind of the model that I would like to see this new group emulate.”
The past Innisfail Citizens on Patrol served the community for 20 years before officially folding operations on Aug. 31, 2014.
That year Bob Bartlett, the Innisfail’s chapter’s final chairman and a past vice-president of Alberta Citizens On Patrol Association (ACOPA), said there was a “good core group” volunteering in Innisfail but added there was serious recruitment challenges and inadequate local support.
“My understanding is that with the other one some of the people left town that were highly involved in it,” said Ihme. “It just kind of failed to kind of drum up additional support, so we’re trying to have a new organization, essentially a reboot.
“We've got a few people that are definitely interested. There's probably five people we’ve kind of identified so far that would like to participate in some fashion.”
With that level of interest identified and Penhold’s new COP chapter a proven success Ihme has moved ahead to organize an information session for 6 p.m. on June 13th at the Innisfail Fire Hall.
The mandated role of citizen members of the COP program is to act as additional “eyes and ears” for their community and the police, with an ultimate goal of reducing crime in the community.
COP members are tasked to be on the lookout for any suspicious or criminal activity, record it, and when appropriate, report it to the RCMP.
With the help and support from the Penhold chapter Ihme is hoping the new Innisfail can be up and running by the end of the summer.
“There's definitely a lot of work that needs to be done to get started,” said Ihme. “It could be a little bit of a daunting task for a new group, so that's why we reached out to Penhold. They were willing to give them that advice and mentorship to get going.”
Ihme emphasized local COP groups are not run by the RCMP. He said it is more like a partnership.
“We're not the ones controlling the group or anything like that. A lot of it will depend on the citizens and the group that starts up the board of directors for the Citizens on Patrol,” said Ihme, noting the goal of having the Innisfail COP up and running by the end of summer will be dependent on certain conditions.
He said all the paperwork on the group’s bylaws must be in order for the Innisfail chapter to receive official charter designation from ACOPA.
“It has to be approved by them (ACOPA) but each Citizens on Patrol is set up as their own not-for-profit organization,” said Ihme, adding that once chartered the group can do its own fundraising.
“They’re insured through the ACOPA organization and follow their guidelines. They've got rules and training and ID cards. That's all run through the provincial association.”
