Citizens on Patrol ramping up in Nipawin

Citizens on Patrol is a way for the community to help deal with crime. Volunteers patrol the community, and report what they find to police. There’s even an COP app that sends information directly to Nipawin’s RCMP.

“You just fill it out in your phone when you’re on patrol and zip it goes off to the RCMP,” Clifford said.

“For example you’re driving by the school at two in the morning and you see a truck there,” Cameron said. “So you make a note, teacher comes to school the next day, for example, finds out there was a break in well, OK, there was a red truck there with licence plate… it gives them (police) somewhere to look.”

Clifford said crime rates have prompted the interest in COP in Nipawin and while crime tends to slow down a little in winter, he said there doesn’t appear to be much change.

“They need money for their drugs and what have you. It is getting worse,” he said.

Clifford said the town of Nipawin has helped out quite a bit, and he praised the new back alley curfew, which prohibits being in the town’s alleys between midnight and 6 a.m.

There are exemptions for people who have good reasons to be in the alley. But the bylaw is another tool for police and volunteers.

“There’ll be too many eyes on them,” he said. “So it’ll be a lot harder. So a couple of things will happen. They will move on to somewhere else. Or they might try to get help.”

The Statistics Canada crime severity index for Nipawin shows the rate has risen for the last few years.

by Doug Lett

Citizens on Patrol ramping up in Nipawin

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