Photo from the Grande Prairie C.O.P. Facebook group

By Liam Verster

Citizens on Patrol

Grande Prairie seeks volunteers for a new Citizens On Patrol program

Oct 19, 2020 | 8:35 AM

A Grande Prairie man is working to establish a Citizens On Patrol (C.O.P) program in the Swan City, but says he needs more people committed to the cause before the program can officially be launched.

Corie Maslyk, who’s lived in the City of Grande Prairie for the past five years, has been trying since May to establish the program, which is essentially a form of the Neighbourhood Watch. However, the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to organize anything, and he’s once again putting the call out to get people involved in helping to keep their neighbourhoods safe.

The idea of a C.O.P. is to have citizens and residents patrol the city, watching for any petty crimes, and reporting them to the RCMP. He says this seems like a much needed program for Grande Prairie.

“I’ve seen it in other communities, Citizens On Patrol, and I just noticed on Facebook , especially in my neighbourhood, I live in Cobblestone, a lot of people are getting upset about people going into their vehicles or taking things out of their lawn,” says Maslyk. “You see it on other Facebook pages [as well].”

A Citizens On Patrol program is already running in Sexsmith, and Maslyk has been working with that group in order to find out how to get the program running in Grande Prairie.

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He is working with members of the Grande Prairie RCMP, as the group effectively acts as extra eyes for the Mounties, but before he can launch the program, he needs more participants.

“I need to get at least 50 people, I have lots of people interested,” says Maslyk. “So we haven’t started doing patrols yet. I’ve got maybe 10 people that have given me the applications back, I’ve sent out over 30 so I’m just waiting to hear back.”

He adds that the Facebook group he’s created, Grande Prairie C.O.P., has over 200 members, and he hopes that some of those people will apply and officially become part of the patrols.

Once Maslyk has collected at least 50 applications, he will deliver them to the RCMP for background checks. After that process is complete, the volunteers will work hand-in-hand with the RCMP to keep an eye out for any suspicious activities or petty crimes in the community.

Maslyk says the patrollers will set their own times, and go out in at least groups of two, to patrol through the City.

“What they do is call dispatch, let them know that you are going out on patrol so that they know, and then if anything does happen then you call them back and they will dispatch the police if need be, or they’ll just record anything that we find” says Maslyk. “We also make our own reports too. We have an app that does a GPS and it does a report at the end of the night of all the areas that you have patrolled .”

Maslyk says this program is basically meant to provide extra eyes for the RCMP, as they can’t be everywhere all the time. He points out how the program works with the example of the Sexsmith C.O.P. and watching the skatepark, where there had been a number of acts of vandalism involving glass being smashed in the park.

“So, the RCMP asked the Sexsmith group if they would do extra patrols around it, to make sure if there was any big groups of kids or teenagers to let them know, and then they’ll come and deal with them.”

Maslyk emphasizes that this group is intended to observe and report, and are not a vigilante group who gets involved in confrontations or engage with those committing crimes.

“C.O.P’s main rule is ‘you don’t get out of the vehicle.’ You don’t interact with them, you just report it, you write down what happened and everything, and don’t get involved. We’re not trained to do that, that’s for the RCMP to deal with.”

Once established, the group will also be involved in providing extra information and support to the community as a whole. The volunteers will go through parking lots and leave flyers on vehicles reminding them to hide or bring in their valuables, and may also be asked to provide assistance to the RCMP during community events.

Those who wish to join the group must go on patrol for a minimum of two hours a month, though more time spent watching for any illicit behaviours or acts is encouraged. He adds that the more people who get involved, the easier it will be to cover all of the city with patrols.

“I really believe that we need this in Grande Prairie,” says Maslyk. “There’s a lot of petty crime going on right now, and I think it’s going to just get worse if we get locked down again. The RCMP can’t be everywhere, they’ve got a lot of things to do, and if we can just be extra eyes out there just to help them out, that would be great.”

Anyone interested in joining the group can email Maslyk at copgrandeprairie@gmail.com, or contact him through his Facebook group.