Nipawin Citizens on Patrol program plans to work closely with police. (File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Doug Lett

Nipawin Citizens on Patrol

Citizens on Patrol planned for Nipawin

Nov 1, 2022 | 2:00 PM

Work continues on a Citizens on Patrol program for Nipawin.

Organizers Linda and Dalton Clifford recently returned from a training session in Alberta, and hope to get the crime watch program operating in the town of 4,500 within the next few months.

“Me personally, I’m hoping for at least January,” Dalton said.

Linda added there is administrative work to do, such as getting an executive in place and having bylaws. She added volunteers will need to be trained, and have police checks done. But the couple believes there are enough volunteers to make it work.

“I have 122 names,” Dalton said. “Plus I got two more today. I had one lady show up at the office today, and another one phoned. She wants to be out and about right now.”

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Citizens on Patrol is a volunteer program where members of the community keep an eye out for crime. It operates in at least eight provinces, and in Saskatchewan, there are roughly a dozen communities where it’s set up.

“We want to be out there,” Linda said. “We want to deter people from doing things, we want to make it hard for them.”

“We are not law enforcement,” Dalton said. “We do not issue tickets; we are just the eyes and ears and voice of the community.”

The couple said there is a lot of petty crime in Nipawin, much of it related to drug use.

“It’s petty theft generated by the need for drug money,” Linda said.

“It’s garages broken into, homes, cars, vandalism, stuff like that,” added Dalton.

The numbers tend to back them up. The crime severity index for Nipawin and the area is above the provincial average, and over the last three years, it has been rising – although there are many communities with even higher rates.

The program operates by having volunteers work closely with local police. If something suspicious is spotted, that information is relayed to the police. The Cliffords said patrols will be part of the program, but only in part. Other aspects could include helping out at community events, or a safe drive program.

“We don’t just patrol at night,” Dalton said. “Citizens on Patrol is a community thing.”

“Our mandate is to detect crime, deter crime, and educate people about crime,” Linda said.

She added they’ve been working toward this for a year, and hoped to have the program up and running by now. But the pandemic meant training was delayed.

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doug.lett@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @DougLettSK