Members of the Williams Lake Community Policing committee were on hand at last week’s council meeting to ask for the continued support from the city.
The committee asked the city for their moral support as well as financial support and also wanted to know if the city was planning on replacing the Community Safety Coordinator position, which was left vacant after Dave Dickson left the position.
Community Policing has the goal of helping out the local RCMP and provides a number of different services including Citizens on Patrol, Speed Watch, Restorative Justice, and Operation Red Nose.
Bob Sunner with the Community Policing Committee, said that without the support of the city, they wouldn’t be able to continue their services.
“Community Policing is one of the most cost-effective ways in assisting the community in achieving its goals, there is nothing better, nothing more cost-effective than zero cost,” he said. “Our volunteers are zero cost to the city. We are out there patrolling, being extra eyes and ears for the RCMP, we are doing whatever it takes to build a better a community and we are doing it without any charge.”
In 2019 the committees 22 members apart of the Citizens on Patrol portion contributed over 1000 hours of volunteer time to the city and participated in 35 patrols and 14 community events.
For 2020, Community Policing is running without any funding, something Williams Lake Mayor Walt Cobb said was caused by miscommunication from both sides.
“We have always supported them. We are not sure what happened this year, but they didn’t apply for there grant. That probably helped caused some confusion,” he said. “The fact that Dave Dickson left our staff and he did a lot of the work with all of the work that they did. That’s the piece that’s missing.”
Cobb added that the City is looking at hiring the position, and is looking for the Community Policing Committee to apply for funding for 2021.