A community man is trying to get a local Citizens on Patrol volunteer group up and running. Corie Maslyk says he wants to take an active stance against crime in his neighbourhood, and around the city.
“Seeing all the petty crime, especially in my neighbourhood… you almost see it daily there’s someone saying their vehicle got broken into or something got stolen out of their yard,” he says.
Maslyk recalls the City of Grande Prairie used to have a neighbourhood watch, which is now inactive. The idea behind CoP is to accomplish a similar objective to the previous watch.
He adds a potential volunteer must submit an application before participating in the CoP, clearing a background check and proving the applicant does not have a criminal record. Maslyk says he would like to have at least 50 people registered and active to patrol the city, and has thus far sent out roughly 60 applications to potential volunteers.
“[People] love the idea of the group, now I just have to get people to volunteer. I think a lot of people think they have to volunteer every day, which, they don’t.”
“All you need to do is just stay in your vehicle, drive around the city, take pictures, if you see anything suspicious report it to RCMP,” says Maslyk.
The time commitment to CoP is a minimum of two hours per month, which volunteers are able to schedule around when they would like to be driving around.
Masklyk adds the group is absolutely not a vigilante organization and discourages any volunteer from attempting something dangerous, and potentially criminal while on patrol.