COPP program hopes to patrol in Niverville

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This article was published 13/01/2019 (1901 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Niverville resident says she has had enough of the crime taking place in her town, and she is hoping the people of her community will come together and put boots on the ground to help keep the streets safe.

Lindsay Unrau, a long-time resident of Niverville, says she has watched as the amount of crime taking place in her community has steadily climbed.

“The crime rate went up between 2015 and 2017 by somewhere between 40 or 45 percent,” Unrau said. “And it hits close to home for me because there have been houses down the street from me broken into, and I thought ‘what if I got home and found out my house was broken into?’”

DAVE BAXTER | THE CARILLON
Niverville resident Lindsay Unrau (at right) has been working with Kenzie McGarry and others as she hopes to get a Citizens on Patrol Program up and running that would patrol the streets of Niverville.
DAVE BAXTER | THE CARILLON Niverville resident Lindsay Unrau (at right) has been working with Kenzie McGarry and others as she hopes to get a Citizens on Patrol Program up and running that would patrol the streets of Niverville.

Unrau has also wondered what would happen if someone tried to break into her house while she and her children were at home.

“With my husband’s job he’s gone for hours at a time, and what if someone tries breaking in here when I am alone with the kids?” she said.

Unrau said her concerns about crime in Niverville were amplified after a few high profile and violent crimes took place in 2017, including a machete attack that took place during a break-and-enter in Jan. of 2017, and a screwdriver attack that took place during a break-and-enter in June of 2017.

For the past few months Unrau has been hard at work trying to get a Citizens on Patrol Program (COPP) off the ground in Niverville that she hopes will see volunteers patrol the streets of Niverville and keep an eye out for crime and suspicious behaviour.

Unrau will host the Niverville COPP Info Night meeting on Jan. 15 at Bistro 290 in Niverville, where she will introduce residents to her ideas for a COPP program for Niverville and also gauge interest on how many would be willing to volunteer should the program get off the ground.

She added a coordinator for the provincial COPP program will be at the meeting and will talk about what goes into starting and volunteering with a COPP program.

For Unrau part of her reason for wanting to start a COPP program is her own frustration with efforts by the current municipal council to get an independent police force set up in Niverville, as the town is currently serviced by the St Pierre RCMP.

“Obviously nothing is being done and something has to be done when you see things like machete attacks and screwdriver attacks,” Unrau said.

“We’re just not getting anywhere.”

She also believes that it is businesses and not just homeowners who will suffer if something doesn’t change in Niverville.

“Businesses are starting to get hit and we need people who are committing these crimes to know there are people out there and they are watching,” Unrau said.

A COPP program was started in Niverville about five years ago but eventually fizzled out because of lack of volunteers.

“This time we have to do things differently to keep that interest alive and we need to offer people incentives for volunteering,” Unrau said. “We need to be creative.”

A petition started by Unrau in 2017 asking Niverville council to look into the idea of an independent police force received more than 500 signatures and was presented to council.

Last May, Niverville council announced they had hired former Winkler Police Chief Rick Hiebert to study and analyze future policing options for Niverville, but Unrau said she is frustrated that no information from that study has yet been presented to the public.

Niverville Mayor Myron Dyck said last Tuesday that study is still ongoing, but he cautioned Niverville does not want to rush into any long-term decisions when it comes to policing.

“It is important that we endure the process,” Dyck said. “I can appreciate people wanting things to be done quicker, but if we do things too quick and without the process we can end up doing things wrong.”

Dyck said the town’s council currently has quarterly meetings with St Pierre RCMP to get updates on crime and crime statistics in Niverville.

“We stay on top of it,” Dyck said.

Dyck added that if Unrau and others can get a COPP program off the ground that would be a good thing for Niverville and something he would support.

“We’re always encouraging volunteerism and this is another form of volunteerism,” Dyck said. “The more eyes out there the better.”

The Niverville COPP Info Night meeting will take place tomorrow starting at 7 p.m. at Bistro 290 in Niverville, and anyone looking for more information on the proposed program can visit the Niverville COPP Facebook page.

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