RCMP Cpl. Shawn Morgan is welcoming the reactivation of the Citizens On Patrol (COP) program in Olds.
Under that program, local volunteers help police by patrolling the community. They're allowed to do so once they've been screened, undergone background checks and have been trained by police.
The program had been dormant for a year or more before being revived this fall as citizens expressed concern about crime in the community.
Their next meeting takes place tonight at the fire hall.
"Police can't be everywhere," Morgan said during a speech to the Olds & District Chamber of Commerce.
"We're a finite number of resources covering a fairly significant area, so we're only as successful as the community will allow us to be in some respects, so having those additional eyes out there ñ not putting themselves into harm's way, but certainly being that extra set of eyes, and telling us when something doesn't fit.
"It's local ñ in your own residential areas. You know what fits; you know what cars belong. You know who's starting their vehicle early in the morning; it might be a diesel truck so you become used to it, and that fits.
"But now if you have that weird noise in the middle of the night that doesn't fit, then that's going to be something that we want to hear about," he said.
Morgan said the same thing applies in commercial or industrial areas.
"If you're part of an industrial area, say, and you're in and out of there, you know what vehicles fit and you know what vehicles should be there, what vehicles should be moving and what vehicles shouldn't be moving.
"And when you have people who are part of that area doing patrols and they're able to observe something that looks suspicious and report it back, then, you know, the net gets bigger. We cast a bigger net and we increase our probability of finding something that's suspicious," he added.
"And maybe it's nothing at the end of the day. But, you know, in the environment that's happening now and the number of break and enters that we're seeing across the province, I suspect we'll have some fairly decent success in at least detecting these crimes as they're occurring, perhaps."
Morgan said the hope is, at the very least, reactivation of the program might serve as a deterrent for criminals.
"(If) a community that has an active COP program that's being successful and they're finding break and enters in progress, that means that'll spread," he said.
"Hopefully it spreads to the people who would come and do some break and enters or thefts in your own community and they're not going to want to come here. The threat of discovery is too high."
"If you have that weird noise in the middle of the night that doesn't fit, then that's going to be something that we want to hear about."CPL. SHAWN MORGANOLDS RCMP
