Community Peace Officers take their oaths at swearing in ceremony

Officer Boon alluded to the drug crisis that has hit Lethbridge over recent years as being a motivating factor for her.

“We all know that our city is in a little bit of a crisis and it will be really good to get out on the streets and be the face, and hopefully be able to help these people. It’s a little hard to say ‘help’ but we’re there to support them, we’re there to be there for them and hopefully make this a positive thing for the City of Lethbridge so that we don’t see that decline, but we see an upward hill from here,” she remarked.

“I’m looking forward to working with people. I love people, I love the diversity in downtown Lethbridge, and I love communicating and being able to problem solve…when there is a problem – being able to actually do something about it.”

Boon touched on any safety concerns, as CPOs are not armed exactly like regular police officers within the Lethbridge Police Service.

“Safety is a concern. However, we have gotten really good training here. Throughout the last five months, we’ve had controlled tactics (training) every week. They taught us a lot of really helpful tips – how to go forward in different situations,” she said.

“Based on that, I feel a lot more comfortable. I know I don’t have the tools, but they have given us ‘tools’ to work through different situations.”

Boon added that eventually, she would like to move up the ranks and become a police officer. She said the CPO program will allow her and fellow CPOs to learn the ins and outs of working the streets and dealing with high-pressure scenarios.

Community Peace Officers will be allowed to enforce crimes such as theft and mischief under $5,000, they will be able to execute search warrants and conduct limited traffic enforcement, while also having authority around substances and gaming-related offenses.

They will also be able to use pepper spray and batons in the field.

Fellow CPO Justin Brizinello said he’s excited and it’s satisfying to see hard work pay off. For the next four months, CPOs will be paired up with field training officers before venturing out on their own.

“We’re going to be mostly downtown, because that’s where we will be after our (field training) is done, so we will be downtown dealing with what’s going on down there, obviously with the drug crisis. We’re going to go to every call – domestic violence, mischief, thefts, we have authorities to do that,” Brizinello said after the swearing in ceremony.

He said like Officer Boon, he wanted to make a difference in his home community.

“I think the agency itself is something that I really take pride in, I’ve had a good relationship with a lot of people here over the years, just being at the college and applying over the years,” he said.

“I think what they’re doing, especially to help the crisis in the downtown area is huge.”

Like Boon, he said he’s prepared to encounter various scenarios.

“It was six months of training, a lot of controlled tactics, with a lot of different scenarios – we had a lot of real-life scenarios,” he said.

Brizinello said CPOs will always operate in pairs, adding to the sense of security when on the field.

“We feel the support of the LPS members as well. They’ve got our back and we’ve got theirs. We’re not going to be alone out there.”

He said his goal is to become a police officer and the CPO program is a great way to pick up some experience and learn more about policing in the city.

“It’s my community. It means more to me to serve my own community than a community I’m not from.”

The Community Peace Officers will soon start up their in-field training with the LPS.

A STEPPING STONE

Lethbridge Police Service Chief Rob Davis spoke at Wednesday morning’s ceremony. He said the CPO program is a great stepping stone into a career as a regular police officer with the LPS.

“The field training is designed to give them some practical skills around the authorities they have been given…in this case bylaws,” he said.

Davis noted that the City of Lethbridge still has bylaw officers, but the CPOs have been given bylaw authority because they will be patrolling directly in the downtown core.

“Certain issues they will come across that may not fit the provincial statute or the criminal code, we still want to let them have some tools to address those,” he said.

“We’re not eliminating the corporate bylaw officers. This is an enhancement to the police service to support bylaw efforts.”

He explained that the CPOs have additional authorities, while the City’s bylaw officers strictly deal with bylaws and regulations from the City.

Davis added that the community response on the implementation of the CPOs has been fantastic so far.

He said eventually, they want to boost the number of Community Peace Officers from the initial nine up to 15 officers.

“What we have found is that people from diverse communities are struggling with some of the threshold testing for police officers,” Davis said.

“This is a great way to get a foot in the door, and let’s hone those skills so that they can become regular police officers because to really police this city, we need the diverse representation in this service.”

In time, applications will be made available for anyone interested in becoming a CPO.

by Justin Goulet

Community Peace Officers take their oaths at swearing in ceremony

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