OLDS — The Olds chapter of Citizens on Patrol (COP) is on hold while a newly formed committee works on a strategy to recruit more members before possibly re-emerging in September.
Another plan is to contact the Alberta Citizens on Patrol Association with a view to possibly having a speaker come to Olds to explain what the organization does and its value to the community.
Those decisions were made after only 13 people attended the Olds COP annual general meeting and information night Feb. 2 at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 105.
Members of COP are volunteers. They patrol the community looking for any suspicious activity. They are not authorized to do any more than simply observe suspicious people or activities and report them to police.
Included in the 13 attendees were Olds RCMP commanding officer Staff Sgt. Warren Wright, senior peace officer Paul Wright, town councillor Dan Daley, and a member of the news media.
That’s a far cry from 2015 when about 80 people showed up for a meeting to resurrect COP after it had disbanded.
Vice-president Ken Hunt, who served as chair of the Feb. 2 meeting, said the 2015 membership was sparked by a strong concern about crime in the community.
Many people eventually quit the organization for several reasons, but Hunt believes several were disappointed to find that the organization and its activities were not quite as exciting as they had anticipated.
“Many of those in our inaugural years dropped out quickly when they realized the time commitment and/or that the program might not (offer) the glamour, fun or challenge they expected,” he said in his report.
Also, fuel costs have risen significantly and some people found going on patrol at night to be too much.
A couple of years of COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions also didn’t help, as the group essentially became dormant.
Hunt said the town provided lots of support in the initial period. The organization even had access to the former Search and Rescue facility but the group has been told that space will no longer be available to them.
Staff Sgt. Wright told the crowd that the crime rate in Olds has dropped over the past few years, although there are issues with some vehicles -- for example, people prowling looking to steal items out of vehicles or vehicles being stolen as people start them up to warm them up in the winter.
“We’re the victims of our own success,” he said.
Several people in the crowd agreed that may have given residents a feeling that there’s no need to go out and patrol the community for potential criminal activity.
Treasurer Phyllis Horpenuk said according to the organization’s bylaws, a quorum consists of at least 10 people.
She said they have a list of about 12 people who theoretically are still members of the organization. Hunt said in his report that that’s not enough people to conduct regular patrols and other organization activities.
Ninety-five-year-old Bill Clancy, who had been an enthusiastic member of the organization, handed in his resignation that night.
Hunt and Horpenuk noted that COP Olds undertook an advertising campaign in local news media and on social media. Despite that effort, only 13 people showed up.
Senior Peace Officer Paul Wright expressed concern about the numbers.
“Safety is paramount across everything,” he said. “It’s not just you going out on patrol being safe, it’s having enough people to make the position safe, because otherwise, you’re going to burn people out.”
Given all those factors, Hunt said perhaps there’s little point in continuing with the organization and it should be disbanded.
However, he agreed with others in the crowd that they could give it another try by setting up the committee and seeing where things stand in the fall.
It was noted that while the crime rate may be comparatively low now, that could change, and criminals are still in active in the community.
Staff Sgt. Wright urged the group to keep COP alive because it performs a valuable service, and he pledged to help it in any way he can.
“I’m not suggesting that you shut down permanently because I see the value in it,” he said.
“I’ll be on board to help you promote this – I will,” he added. “Because I’ve been involved in it before in other communities and it’s very valuable.”
When Staff Sgt. Wright held a town hall meeting on crime in Bowden a couple of weeks ago, about 35 people came out because they were very concerned about crime in the community.
He predicted that because of that concern, likely about 20 Bowden residents might be interested in joining a COP, so perhaps an Olds and area COP could be created.
Concern was expressed that a protocol called for those on patrol to contact RCMP to say they’re out patrolling and where they’re patrolling.
However, there was rarely – if ever – acknowledgement of that by police, and that left at least some patrollers uneasy for their safety.
During an interview after the meeting, Hunt sympathized with that concern, but said the larger issue of whether the organization will survive and continue needs to be determined before that concern can be addressed.
