For 10 years the Christina Lake branch of Citizens on Patrol have been serving their community by being an extra set of eyes and ears looking out.
The group was founded by a group of citizens, including their current chairperson, Dave Beattie, upon the suggestion of Christina Lake postmistress Pat Palmer.
Beattie, who has been with the group since its inception, explained that their role is to watch, record, and report.
“Our main job is just to be observing, just like anyone would in a neighbourhood,” Beattie said. “We don’t get involved with enforcing the law or anything like that. If we see something we record it and, if necessary, we’ll report it just as your neighbour next door would. If they see something going on they might jot down a few things and call the police. That’s what we do.”
Beattie explained that the two main concerns of the group are making sure that the youth of Christina Lake stay safe and that the community is kept safe from wildfires.
“We want to make sure the young people get through the holiday season without an accident,” Beattie said. “One year, one of our members got glow in the dark bracelets for them to put on their wrist while they’re walking along the highway from the pub when it’s black.”
Regarding the fire situation, Beattie described the efforts Citizens on Patrol are making this summer, as well as in 2015.
“We’re constantly on the lookout for illegal fires,” he said. “If need be, we could be there to back up our firefighters and give them a break. Not fighting fires, but going around and looking for more problems. For example, two years ago, we were approached by the firefighters to go out during the night to watch for any wind changes with the major fire just over the border, because if the wind changed, it could have hit Christina Lake badly. They had been working really hard and we were able to jump in and fill the gap to drive around in the wee hours of the morning waiting to see if the wind changed instead of the firefighters.”
The group also sets up a speed reader board near Christina Lake Elementary School during the school year to encourage people to slow down, as well as volunteers with setting up and directing traffic for Christina Lake’s annual Homecoming festival.
Despite reporting their observations to the RCMP, Beattie said that they aren’t closely affiliated to law enforcement and that the group has no special powers in that regard.
“We’re pretty well on our own. As far as apprehending anyone, we don’t have a mandate to do any more than your next-door neighbour could do. I like to emphasis that because from time to time we get people coming up to us saying ‘can you do something about this party or a series of little thefts that have been going on?’, because, no, we can’t. We can just phone the RCMP detachment the same as anyone can.”
Beattie has enjoyed being part of the group through his ten years with it.
“Just knowing that we’re contributing something [is enjoyable],” he said. “Any time you give to the community, it pays back tenfold. You feel good about it.”
The group is always interested in having more people get involved.
“We originally had 15 members, but four retired this year,” Beattie said. “I’d say that the core group is eight that are really available most of the time. Getting it back up to 15 would be nice. Some of us are getting a little long in the tooth now and we’d like to get some more younger people coming in to take over.”
Anyone wanting to get involved with the Christina Lake Citizens on Patrol can contact Beattie at 250-447-2665 or the Grand Forks RCMP at 250-442-8288.