Good afternoon. My name is Lane, I'm the director of the Citizens on Patrol program in Edam, Saskatchewan. This is a village of 436 people in northwest Saskatchewan, between the cities of Lloydminster and North Battleford. North Battleford has, for the last two years, been classified as the most dangerous city in Canada.
I've been asked here today to explain how our Citizens on Patrol program works and the things that we've seen out in the field.
First, the concerns of citizens in our village and rural area regarding crime prompted a town hall meeting with the RCMP. Our Citizens on Patrol program started in January of 2018, shortly after this meeting. The Citizens on Patrol program works in partnership with the RCMP. We talk to them quite often. We're the eyes and ears for the RCMP in our area. We are about 20 to 25 minutes away from the nearest detachment.
I just put a few little notes in here on what a normal patrol looks like for our volunteers.
The group is strictly volunteers. There's no payment when these guys do this. Our patrol consists of two volunteers, and starts anywhere between 11 p.m. and 12 a.m., and will finish anywhere from 4:30 a.m. until the regular traffic in town starts moving. It just depends on the activities within the town and the activities of the criminals within our town. We contact the RCMP dispatch when we start, and volunteers then drive around the village streets and park in designated areas to monitor the movement in town. Lots of times there is movement. The village has also supplied us with cameras and a phone to monitor the entrance to the village. There isn't one person who comes into town after 11 p.m. who isn't on camera.
When suspicious activity occurs, volunteers contact the RCMP dispatch, and the RCMP officer on duty in our area will then contact the volunteer for more information so they can figure out if they need to come down, what's happening and whatnot. Suspicious activity is anything that is unusual at that time of the morning: unfamiliar vehicles, drug activity, foot traffic, people walking around with hoods up scouting out businesses and stuff like that.
It should be noted that Edam, Saskatchewan, has no hotel, no bar and nothing open past 10 p.m. Other than the odd person coming around, especially during the week, there is not a lot of movement unless it's criminal activity.
The volunteers monitor the suspicious activity at a safe distance until the RCMP arrive. When the RCMP arrive, they make contact with the volunteer in person and decide where they need to be. Usually they then go to check out the situation and see what happens. If the RCMP are busy with a higher-priority call, the volunteers keep monitoring the situation—sometimes up to two or three hours—until they are able to respond.
Our information from each patrol is documented through an app we built called iPatrol, and is then emailed to our Citizens on Patrol executive, which looks at each situation. We go over it with the cops either the next day or weekly.
The success of the program has had a huge impact on reducing crime in our area. When we started this program, the town of 400 people was hit three to four times a night. It was mostly stolen vehicles and some break and enters. We've had many, many different situations. It hasn't been very fun, to be honest, but at the end of the day it's reduced the crime, and that's what we have been doing to reduce the crime. Information given to the RCMP by volunteers has led to numerous arrests of gang affiliates, people with outstanding warrants, and drug traffickers, as well as recovery of stolen property.
We believe the Citizens on Patrol program is not a permanent solution, as it's run solely by volunteers. Volunteers donate their time, fuel and vehicles to be on patrol in our community. Lots of these people work during the day, and they're out until 4:30 or 5:30 in the morning, so their next day at work is pretty tough, but in order to keep our community safe, that's what we've had to resort to.
As the director of Citizens on Patrol, I speak, at a minimum, weekly with the RCMP. We believe this has been very important for the safety of our volunteers and the success of our program. We share information on what's been happening in our area. We go over the information regarding what's been happening in surrounding areas and communities. That's what we do.
These crimes have been committed by people from all walks of life. There isn't any issue with reserves in the area.
We have come to the conclusion that we need the justice system to change a bit and we need more policing. The Young Offenders Act has been an especially big part of our issues here. Having 12- and 13-year-old kids running around with sawed-off .22s and stealing vehicles is not fun.
In a lot of our dealings with criminals, they've been out for their sixth or seventh time and they've had two or three warrants out for their arrest. One in particular that we were dealing with had over 12 warrants for his arrest. That's what we've had to do.
That basically wraps up my introduction.