Citizens on Patrol: serving as extra eyes & ears for local police
“We’re all in this together. Crime affects us all,” Tony Zabinsky told the two dozen Fort St. John and District Chamber of Commerce members who turned out on Wednesday afternoon to learn more about the Citizens on Patrol Society.
Zabinsky, who serves on Fort St. John city council is a volunteer with COPSFSJ and an avid supporter of the group. In his presentation, Zabinsky noted that although there was a COPS group in Fort St. John throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, the society’s resurrection is solely because of the due diligence of local woman, Jackie Miranda.
The formation of the new society goes back to an April 2023 city council meeting and a delegation of business owners frustrated by the rising crime in the city, and the impact it was having on their businesses, employees, and customers. The delegation, lead by business owner Rui Miranda, sought council’s help with the situation.
“What was the city going to do? Well, we talked, we met, and we thought of some ideas that could help out, but it really didn’t address the high crime that was happening, because it was outside the city’s jurisdiction,” Zabinsky said.
“That’s when Jackie took it upon herself, with Corporal Dwayne Kroll who had previous dealings with Citizens on Patrol in various communities in BC, that she wanted to be the sharp end of the spear, the liaison in setting up Citizens on Patrol in Fort St. John and the RCMP,” he said.
After consulting with Edmonton’s Citizens on Patrol to gather information about their program, Jackie Miranda set out to create COPSFSJ in July 2023.
“She thought up the mission for Citizens on Patrol, and that is: Citizens on Patrol Fort St. John acts as the extended eyes and ears of the local law enforcement agency,” Zabinsky said. “We are there to assist them.”
Although it’s run solely by volunteers, COPSFSJ does have rigorous requirements for those who wish to volunteer to patrol the community, including an online application and an in-depth police background check which goes deeper than a standard Criminal Records Check. Once that is completed, Miranda contacts the applicants and sets up a group orientation session, Zabinsky explained. At the orientation, volunteers receive the COPSFSJ handbook and codes of conduct are reviewed.
Schedules are created monthly, with approximately three to five shifts per week. Each shift is roughly two hours long.
To help increase the productivity of the shifts, the RCMP provides Miranda with local crime analytics detailing areas of concern. COPSFSJ patrols cover the whole city, so for example, the RCMP might have noticed an increase in suspicious activity in the downtown core, then they would ask Miranda to make sure the patrols pay particular attention to that area during their shifts.
Volunteers work in pairs on patrol – one to drive and one to keep an eye on the community. Knowledge of the community is an asset, in order to give as police an accurate location when reporting suspicious behaviour, which they can do via an app.
In addition, for their safety, patrollers are not supposed to engage with those they observe, Zabinsky said. They’re to stay in their vehicles, and report suspicious behaviour or incidents where people or property are in jeopardy to the RCMP or 911.
However, in the event that COPSFSJ volunteers must exit their vehicles during a patrol, they’re equipped with high-vis vests and flashlights.
COPSFSJ currently has 65 volunteers signed up, 49 of whom are active members, Zabinsky said.
“Citizens on Patrol use their eyes, ears and most importantly our headlights to successfully deter numerous actions and activities of doubt,” he said. “Headlights are big. Especially in the wintertime. When we’re driving around at four o’clock, or at two o’clock in the morning . . . this community is pretty quiet at that time, and you notice who’s around and who’s not around.”
Miranda, who comes from a large farm family north of town, says her parents believed in old school discipline and the kids “didn’t want to get caught doing stupid shit.”
“That’s kind of the idea behind Citizens on Patrol. It’s more of a deterrent to stop you from doing stupid shit, and getting caught,” she said. “We’re not the RCMP so we’re not arresting anyone.”
For example, Miranda said that this summer, when the paving was in progress on Northern Lights Drive, a patrol came across a pickup with a flat deck backed up to a bobcat. When the patrol’s headlights lit up the area, a couple of guys popped out, jumped in their pickup, and took off.
“They weren’t just there hanging out, obviously they were trying to steal something, possibly the bobcat, who knows? But they were doing something they shouldn’t have been doing,” she said.
“We are definitely making a difference, even the analytics from the RCMP have reflected that we’re making a difference.”
Going forward, COPSFSJ needs more volunteers, Zabinsky said. Not just volunteers to do the patrols, but also people to sit on the society’s board. Someone to build and maintain a website to get the information out to the public better, create newsletters, and plan events.
“Citizens on Patrol is a valuable service that adds to the policing service that our RCMP provides. It takes everybody to deter crime, be proactive to deter thefts, property thefts and personal crimes,” Zabinsky said. “When do you want to sign up to be part of this great association?”
Anyone interested in helping COPSFSJ as a volunteer, or with donations, or fundraising ideas can contact Jackie Miranda at 250-261-0597 or copsfsj@gmail.com