Flin Flon RCMP are one step closer to gaining potentially dozens more eyes and ears.
An official with Citizens On Patrol is set to visit Flin Flon in early August to help volunteers launch the crime-prevention program locally.
“We’re very close,” said Ben McCutcheon, who is spearheading Flin Flon’s COP program.
McCutcheon said the COP official will bring paperwork and booklets for volunteers while also detailing the guidelines that govern the program.
McCutcheon said nearly 40 volunteers are interested in becoming involved, but he doesn’t know when the program will officially launch.
“There’s an amazing amount of interest,” he said.
Many volunteers are willing to keep a watchful eye over their neighbourhoods, or help with fundraisers, but only eight have said they will go on vehicle or foot patrols of the community.
While McCutcheon would like more patrol volunteers, he said Thompson – more than twice the size of Flin Flon – runs a COP program with only six volunteers.
Just as the startup of COP is unknown, it’s unclear at what time of the day patrols would take place throughout Flin Flon.
COP is a nationally recognized volunteer program in which private individuals conduct patrols of their community in search of criminal or suspicious activity. They immediately report those situations to the police.
COP operated in Flin Flon for about eight years beginning in 1995. At one time about 60 volunteers were said to be involved.
Interest dwindled and COP disbanded, apparently sometime in 2003. A campaign to reinstate the program in 2005 evidently fizzled.
McCutcheon got the idea to revive COP from Flin Flon Post It, a Facebook page showcasing rants and debates among area residents.
On the topic of crime, McCutcheon kept reading posts asking why no one was starting a local COP program.
McCutcheon invites anyone interested in becoming a part of the new COP to contact him via Facebook.
