Mobilizing to fight crime

A group of Merrittonians have decided to create a block watch in response to rising crime.

Citizens on Patrol, which held their first meeting on Sept. 13, was formed by Merritt residents Bryan Halfordilo, Jenn Ann Fraser, and Michael Larden in response to the recent surge in crime and the homeless shelter being moved from Merritt Desert Inn to Knights Inn.

"The more eyes in the community we have, the better,” said Halfordilo. "We're not here to confront people, we're here to just watch, and if we have to, call the police on certain situations.”

The meeting discussed logistics and safety of organizing the patrols.

Larden has contacted the Vancouver Police Citizens Crimewatch program for documents on their rules and regulations, planning to collaborate with the mayor, police, and others to create local guidelines, ensuring clarity on what can and cannot be done for the Citizens on Patrol initiative.

The patrol group is looking to acquire radios for internal coordination as well as communication with the RCMP. "I think it's going to be a positive thing moving on, because there's strength in numbers,” said City Councillor Paul Petroczi. "Policing is a lot tougher now than when I was a member.”

"That's why reporting helps,” said Fraser. 'Even a report helps, it's not necessarily ending that crime right there right now, but getting that report helps.

"We want to make sure that everything we do with this group is above board and within the confines of the law so that everyone is protected.”

Larden also volunteered to take on the role as an administrator and incident accountant for the patrol group. 'I think if there's some sort of organization for keeping in contact, for somebody to hold all the information and organize it, like administrative,” said a resident that inspired Larden to take on the role.

"We can go to the RCMP station and hand them one radio and say ‘if you want to have a car that has the one radio on it, we go out, and if we see something, we can radio them right away,'” said Larden. 'That's essentially what happens in Vancouver, they have two police officers that, in their police cars, they have a radio that is hooked up directly to the Citizens Crime Watch program, and they're on there really quick when that works out.”

Issues with limited resources within Merritt were also discussed.

According to Petroczi, there are currently two on duty officers patrolling at night while a third remains at the detachment.

During the day, the City's bylaw officers are unable to properly do their duties due to safety concerns. "When our bylaw officers go and move these tents, they're mostly full of weapons, drugs and cash,” said Merritt Mayor Mike Goetz. "These are not homeless people, these are people usually paying off a debt to somebody.”

"The problem here is, we also have to ask the provincial government to stop downloading everything on communities, we can't do this the way it is,” said Goetz.

Goetz suggests the idea of utilizing Crown land and installing pallet shelters. Pallet houses are cost effective, modular, rapidly deployable shelters designed to provide temporary housing solutions for unsheltered populations, with each unit assembled within an hour and equipped with amenities like climate control, locking doors, and hygiene facilities.

"If we got 15 acres of Crown land, and we took that $1.9 million (from BC Housing's investment in the Knights Inn) we could house 150 people out of the community on their own, in their own compound for life, if they chose to do it,” said Goetz. "$1.9 million looks after 40 people for two and a half years, the spending doesn't make any sense.”

After the meeting was over, Citizens on Patrol had their first unofficial night patrol with five volunteers covering significant ground over the span of two hours.

"We located a place that we will keep monitoring, unfortunately it is on private property so the RCMP can't do anything about it,” said Halfordilo. "We have made them aware, and will contact the property owner, to make them aware.”

Halfordilo announced in a Facebook post he met with the RCMP to discuss safety and will not have an official patrol until Sept. 20.

"There are a lot of guns in town and a lot of people carry weapons; as people walking, we have no car to try and get away in,” said Halfordilo. "I know many of us want to keep going out, so this is what we will do, we will not go out until Friday night, to get a few things in order.”