Two members of the Ryley Citizens on Patrol (RCOP) group, Secretary Treasurer Dianna Kowerchuk and member Thomas Hoban, set up a table at the village’s April 30 engagement event held at the new community centre. The pair said they were looking to familiarize more residents with their organization and spread the word about the volunteer work they are doing in the community.
“People know who we are because we go (to events such as this and) the farmers market and make ourselves known,” said Kowerchuk. “We’re going to do more this summer.”
Hoban said the RCOP group formed last year in response to increasing crime in the area, while Kowerchuk said they have grown to 13 members. She said they primarily patrol the village and report to the police what they see.
“We have to report what we see. That’s all we can do is be the eyes and ears,” she said. “If we see anything, we phone the RCMP and report it as suspicious (and) we also have an app on our phones that tracks where we’ve been.”
Kowerchuk said the group received $10,000 last year from the Clean Harbours Community Enhancement grant, and it’s already been put to good use.
“We’ve just got dashcams so we can record if we do see something so it’s not just going to be our word, it’s going to be recorded and we can send it off to the RCMP immediately,” she said. “We’ve got the big village sign now that’s going up where the old hotel parking lot was, and we’ve got four signs on all the entrances into town that it’s being patrolled by Citizens on Patrol.”
Hoban said he feels the level of criminal activity has significantly improved.
“It’s been way better,” he said. “(It’s good) when the community stands together to deal with something. No one wants to come around and mess with everyone’s stuff anymore. So it’s kind of nice to see.”
Kowerchuk added that identifying decals have been added to the volunteer’s vehicles so residents won’t mistake them for criminals as they are circling the neighbourhoods.
Meanwhile, Tofield RCMP Sgt. Cameron Paul said he couldn’t speculate on whether Ryley’s crime rate has decreased as numbers were not readily available. However, Paul said that Citizens on Patrol groups do have a positive effect on the level of crime in communities.
“Experience has demonstrated that citizens who are invested in crime prevention in their communities have a positive effect on reducing crime over time, whether it be through crime prevention organizations and programs, or directly reporting crimes and suspicious incidents immediately to police,” he said.
Jana Semeniuk
Staff Reporter
