Local volunteers working to make Chestermere safer

After a perceived increase in crime last year community volunteers came together to form the Chestermere Citizens On Patrol Society (CCOPS) to build a safer community.
CCOPS started up in December 2015 after Jeff Rutter, Director of the CCOPS became aware of complaints of increased crime voiced on the I Love Chestermere website.
“I was informed by family members that on the I Love Chestermere website there was a lot of citizens who were complaining about what they perceived as a spate or increase in crime in the city,” he said.
Rutter worked for five years in B.C. with a similar organization to Citizens on Patrol (COP) called Crime Watch. He decided to revive the local chapter of COP to address the community concerns expressed online.
“Because I had, had five years of experience in British Columbia…I sort of sparked things off,” he said.
About 25 people have joined CCOPS. They went out on their first patrol in March 2016.
Working in teams of two, volunteers patrol Chestermere in the evenings watching for suspicious vehicles, people and activities that may warrant police intervention.
Each patrol is in communication with the RCMP to report anything that they see that may need further investigation.
“It comes down to an extra set of eyes and ears for the police,” said Rutter.
Volunteers receive training on what they should be looking for. RCMP liaison officer Const. Leah Haye said some things can be pretty obvious while other cues to suspicious activity may not so obvious to members of the public.
“They’re job is to observe and report,” said Haye.
One of the benefits of COP is that it allows officers to interact with and develop relationships with members of the community.
“We like being involved in the community,” said Haye.
Although it can be hard to directly observe the preventative effects of COP programs Haye believes strongly in the value of the program. Prior to joining the RCMP she volunteered for three years with her local Citizens on Patrol.
“It’s hard to measure what you may have prevented just by being there,” she said.
The number of patrols each week varies but each volunteer is asked to complete a minimum of one per month.
“Ideally I’d like to have somebody out every night of the week,” said Rutter, “but that’s just not possible.”
“We try and get out three sometimes four nights a week,” he said.
To reach their goal of nightly patrols, Rutter said that CCOPS needs 60 or more volunteers.
They are always looking to recruit more members.
Volunteers must be 18 years of age, pass a police background check and be a resident of Chestermere.
For more information or to volunteer e-mail ccopschestermere@gmail.com