April 10, 2023 at 4:00 pm
The Sarnia Police Service continued its work to establish an auxiliary police force.
Deputy Commissioner Julie Craddock said the commitment was part of the organisation’s strategic vision.
“We’re excited to start this work,” Craddock said. “We had an information session a few weeks ago with about 35 members of the public. We’ve opened applications and are doing it for people who didn’t have the opportunity to attend the first meeting and want to learn more about the auxiliary policing service and the program Second information session.”
Sarnia Police Department Deputy Chief Julie Craddock. April 2023. (Photo by Melanie Owen)
Many organizations across Canada have auxiliary policing units, Craddock said.
“They really are people in the community who want to volunteer their time in a unique way and contribute to the safety, well-being and public safety of the community,” she said.
Craddock said they have been approved to have up to 20 members in the department.
“We’re looking at an initial group of 10. That’s a little easier for us to manage. Again, because it’s new, there’s a huge commitment to training, so we’re doing about 10 to 11 on new volunteers as they come in. weeks of training,” she said. “We provide them with uniforms and equipment, so we want to make sure we can start with a manageable number.”
Craddock said they could expand from there in 2024 or 2025.
“Based on my experience working with the Auxiliary Police, I would say about 80 to 90 percent of them actually just want to volunteer. A lot of them already have careers, families, it’s just them giving back to the community in a unique way,” she said.
Within that group, there are also people who are genuinely interested in a career in policing, Craddock said.
“It can be a stepping stone for them. Sometimes young people who want to get a little life experience, or who aren’t sure if policing is the right career for them, show up through the auxiliary stream so they can experience it and make an informed decision from it There,” she said.
After the training, Craddock said they were looking for a commitment of about 12 hours per month.
“They can go out on patrol with officers, they can go to community events with us like RIDE [Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere] Spot checks to see if we do that,” she said. “If we have missing or vulnerable people in our community and we’re doing searches, they’re assisting with those searches. “
Information session held at the Police Training Center at Lambton Mall [behind the old Teppermans] Tuesday, April 11 at 5pm
“We’re not looking for any one particular type of person. The great thing about ancillary programs and policing in general is that we need people with a variety of skill sets. That’s actually what makes our organization great,” Craddock explain.
The information session is open to the public and no registration is required.
