INNISFAIL – After an absence of almost nine years, crime-busting support from an Innisfail Citizens on Patrol group is a big step closer.
Innisfail RCMP Staff Sgt. Ian Ihme said there was “pretty good” interest for the first information meeting on June 13 at the Innisfail Fire Hall to reboot the Citizens on Patrol (COP) program.
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.
The past Innisfail COP chapter served the community for 20 years before officially folding operations on Aug. 31, 2014.
Ihme said a dozen citizens showed up for the inaugural meeting of a new COP on June 13 at the Innisfail Fire Hall.
He said there was “varying levels of interest in how involved they wanted to be” on June 13 for a new COP program.
Ihme said there was a follow-up meeting on June 27 at the Innisfail RCMP detachment.
“The group that was there elected their executive board for the Citizens on Patrol,” said Ihme, adding the board now has three members; a president, vice-president and secretary-treasurer.
“Right now what they're working on is striking up a not-for-profit society. They've got some draft bylaws that they're going to discuss at the next meeting to get them sorted out,” said Ihme, adding the next meeting was held July 11 at the Innisfail RCMP detachment.
“Every non-profit organization has to have bylaws about how its governed, how people are elected,” said Ihme. “That's the main push for the next meeting because once they have that in place they can then apply for approval to join the provincial organization (Alberta Citizens On Patrol Association), which then covers them for insurance, and all that kind of stuff.
“It is definitely moving forward.”
However, he said there will still be a “little bit” of time before the rebooted Innisfail COP chapter has enough of a framework to begin patrols.
“I'm hoping it will be near the end of summer that that'll be started,” said Ihme. “I think once the organization that has that backbone in place there'll be another recruitment drive to try and find people just as general members who just want to come out and help with patrols.”
Ihme said if there are any other citizens that want to attend COP meetings they can reach out to the detachment at 403-227-3342.
He said there is an application that needs to be filled, as well as a criminal record check that is done at the detachment.
“They can then come to the meetings and join the discussions,” said Ihme.
