Yorkton Citizens On Patrol sent a letter to Yorkton Council seeking financial support for 2011.
The letter circulated at the regular meeting of Council Monday noted the City has provided an $8,000 sponsorship grant in past years, and COPP was seeking the same arrangement for 2011.
The request was forwarded to Administration by Council, but Lonnie Kaal, the City's Director of Finance explained after the meeting $8,000 was allocated in the 2011 City Budget passed in December.
In the letter COPP explained, "Our organization functions as the extra "Eyes and Ears of the RCMP" by assisting RCMP members in detecting crime in our community. Since its inception over fourteen years ago Yorkton COPP has been instrumental in finding and reporting stolen vehicles, incidents of vandalism, graffiti, break and enter and traffic offenses. In some instances COPP members have come upon a crime in progress and the individual(s) involved in the crime have been arrested."
The letter further detailed COPP sees its contribution to community safety as important.
"COPP members believe very strongly in their program and care very sincerely about the community and 小蓝视频 able to contribute to the safety of residents. We feel that our mere presence driving about the city each night is a deterrent to crime. How many incidents that do not happen because of this presence are impossible to measure? COPP also provides traffic control at fires, accident scenes, marathons and so on. This frees up a certain number of the RCMP officers to investigate the incident concerned. We do extra patrol of residences, when requested, where the occupants are away on vacation or other absences. COPP has assisted in locating missing persons and helping to establish a perimeter where the police dog is searching," detailed the letter.
