SUNDRE – A local group of volunteers who are committed to playing a part in protecting the community wants to grow its ranks.
Following a lightly attended informational open house meeting hosted last month at the Sundre Municipal Library, the Sundre Citizens on Patrol Association (SCOPA) are looking at pursuing a recruitment campaign over the coming months, the group’s president said.
“It was just our own people showed up,” Gerald Ingeveld told the Albertan about the open house, adding the association intends to consider options to round up some new members.
The association was revived and once again became active in 2018 with about 20 members following many years after a lull in volunteer engagement back in the 1990s that at the time had sent the group into a lengthy hiatus.
The COVID-19 pandemic further threw wrenches into the group’s geared effort to maintain regular patrols that act as an additional set of eyes and ears for police.
But a core group remains dedicated to the cause.
“We’re down to about a dozen now,” said Ingeveld, adding the association’s membership will be looking at ways to increase that number.
“If we doubled our size, we’d be a lot happier,” he said, adding that anyone who is so inclined to learn more or even get involved is invited to drop by the Sundre Municipal Library.
“We’ve got information and sign-up sheets and everything’s at the library,” he said.
Additionally, there are opportunities for anyone who is interested to join a member of the Sundre RCMP detachment for a ride along, he said.
Const. Nick Hull, the local department’s liaison for SCOPA, was also present for the open house and the officer discussed a relatively new RCMP program called CAPTURE, an acronym that stands for Community Assisted Policing Through the Use of Recorded Evidence.
The entirely voluntary program offers both residents and business owners who have any kind of video surveillance systems the option of registering their feed with the RCMP so that in the event a crime occurs nearby, police can access a directory to determine if any registered cameras might have captured footage and then contact the respective owner with a request for available recordings.
Anyone who voluntarily chooses to sign up and create an account will be asked to provide contact information as well as the video cameras through the secure website. That information is not available to the public, and officers who require anything further will get in touch by way of the contact information provided. Program participants can opt out at any time.
Visit www.ruralalbertacapture.ca to learn more about the program or to register.
