The efforts of Citizens on Patrol to help make the Battlefords a safer place was highlighted at a North Battleford city council meeting Monday.
Just don鈥檛 call it making the Battlefords 鈥済reat.鈥�
Citizens on Patrol鈥檚 Doug Fehr presented to council Monday on the wide range of activities the organization was undertaking in the community. But Councillor Thomas 鈥淏ill鈥� Ironstand took issue with Citizens on Patrol鈥檚 recruiting poster, which has the slogan 鈥淗elp Keep the Battlefords a Great Place to Be.鈥�
For Ironstand, it reminded him too much of another slogan made famous by President Donald Trump.
鈥溾�楢 great place to be鈥� 鈥� really, some wording choices there that honestly give me a very bad vibe around the politics to the south of us, 鈥榤aking things great again鈥� and that,鈥� said Ironstand.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 how I read that, honestly. I鈥檓 just a citizen of North Battleford, I just think maybe that鈥檚 something you and your group may want to re-look at in the wording in my personal opinion.鈥�
Fehr said he understood the interpretation and added, 鈥淭rust me, that鈥檚 certainly not the intention. And so we鈥檒l take that under advisement.鈥�
Despite that, the presentation from Fehr provided insight into the activities of Citizens on Patrol over the past year:
The organization includes 20 volunteers who act as additional eyes and ears for law enforcement, with activities including vehicular patrols and maintaining the security camera registry.
The pandemic had a impact on the organization鈥檚 operations in 2020. It was noted COVID-19 shut down from March to the end of June. They were able to conduct at least one patrol over 26 weeks usually for a minimum of 3 hours.
There were 33 days with a patrol of one to three vehicles, and on 106 times an individual was out patrolling, always paired up. Patrols happen usually during higher crime times such as late evenings.
They have a direct line to RCMP in Regina dispatch if they see an incident requiring a response.
Citizens on Patrol maintains the security camera registry in the city and there are 65 cameras currently on the registry.
The organization also uses the SaskPower app in recording streetlight outages, and Fehr reported SaskPower normally responds very quickly.
The organization uses an I-patrol app that records such things as gang graffiti, mischief, abandoned vehicles and others.
Most of the activity recorded has been graffiti gang tags in the city, including the date, time and coordinates. The goal is to get those graffiti tags removed, but Fehr noted the actual removal has been slow. They are working for ways to speed it up, as he said the RCMP reports there is 鈥済ood value for gang activity suppression though removal of gang tags.鈥�
He said they are working with CSOs Chief Lindsay Holm and Deputy Chief Colin O鈥橦ara on how to better address it.
Recruiting has also been another challenge lately, due to COVID-19. Fehr noted they are still looking for more recruits and there may be opportunities for advertising for more members.
