The Sarnia Police Service continues its work to launch an auxiliary constable unit.
Deputy Chief Julie Craddock said the commitment was made as part of the strategic vision of the organization.
"We are very excited to start that," said Craddock. "We held an information session a couple weeks ago and had about 35 members of the public attend. We have opened up applications and are hosting a second information session for people that didn't have an opportunity to attend the first one and want to learn more about the auxiliary policing unit and the program."
Craddock said lots of organizations across Canada have auxiliary policing units.
"They really are people in the community that are wanting to volunteer their time in a unique way to contribute to the community's safety, wellbeing, and public safety," she said.
Craddock said they've been authorized to have up to 20 members on the unit.
"We are looking for an initial group of 10. That will be a little bit more manageable for us. Again, because it's new, there is a huge training commitment, so we do about 10 to 11 weeks of training with the new volunteers when they come in," she said. "We provide them with a uniform and equipment and so we want to make sure that we are able to start with a manageable number."
Craddock said they'll likely expand from there in 2024, or 2025.
"In my experience working with auxiliary police officers, I would say about 80 to 90 per cent of them actually want to just volunteer. A lot of them already have careers, they have families, and this is just a unique way for them to give back to the community," she said.
Within that group, Craddock said there's also some people with a real interest in going into policing as a profession.
"This might be a stepping stone for them. Sometimes younger people that are looking to get a little bit of life experience, or people that are unsure about whether or not policing is the profession for them, will come up through that auxiliary stream so that they can experience it and make an informed decision from there," she said.
After training, Craddock said they're looking for a commitment of about 12 hours per month.
"They can come out on patrol with an officer, they can work a community event with us, something like R.I.D.E. [Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere] spot checks if we're doing that," she said. "If we have a missing or vulnerable person in the community, and we're doing a search, they would assist with those searches."
The information session is being held at the Police Training Centre at Lambton Mall [behind the old Teppermans] on Tuesday, April 11 at 5 p.m.
"We're not looking for any one, specific, type of person. The great thing about the auxiliary program and policing in general, is that we need people with a whole diverse skill set. That's actually what makes our organization great," Craddock said.
The information session is open to the public and there is no need to register.