REGINA — The next time you see your local RCMP at work, take a closer look. One of them just might be your former teacher, your mechanic or the local librarian.
There are two auxiliary police in the Fort Qu’Appelle detachment. Robert Morton is a meat cutter at a local grocery store and Allen Bausmer is a retired school teacher who lives in Lipton.
Morton volunteered because he is considering a career in policing.
“It’s close to what I thought it would be,” Morton said. “The excitement was something I wasn’t bargaining for though. It’s an eye-opener.”
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Under a government program 25 volunteer auxiliary constables are now in 11 Saskatchewan detachments.
Sgt. Ralph Goss, who co-ordinates the program from Regina, said the auxiliaries have become invaluable in just a few months on the job. Ideally, all 112 detachments in the province will eventually have auxiliary constables.
“Any time you can include your community in your policing you’ve got half the battle in crime solving won,” he said.
Const. Wayne Maughan of the Fort Qu’Appelle detachment agrees.
“It’s a step forward for community policing as far as we’re concerned,” he said.
Auxiliaries wear regular RCMP uniforms but do not carry firearms or drive police cars. They go out on patrol, do paperwork, work crowd control at events like rodeos and fairs, and perform some office duties.
Morton has had the dubious honor of attending the scene of an attempted suicide.
“They’re subject to the same things we are,” Maughan said. The auxiliaries will be trained to use pepper spray to protect themselves.
Programs similar to Saskatchewan’s have been operating across Canada for years and are an excellent example of community policing in action, Goss said.
“Law enforcement is not just a police problem or a police initiative.”
If the response to the initial call for volunteers is any indication, residents believe this too. Some detachments chose their auxiliary officers from as many as 20 applicants.
Goss said auxiliaries must be at least 19, community minded, in good physical condition with no criminal record and have no conflict of interest due to their regular jobs and volunteer 160 hours each year.
