Safety Patrol Back For Summer

Written by Peter McIntyre 107.5 KISSFM Tuesday, 07 June 2011 10:03

Vernon's Safety Patrol is back for another summer, but with fewer members.  The tenth anniversary of the team has four bicycle-riding patrollers, down two due to city of Vernon cutbacks.  The lost positions were part of the anti tag team.  Coordinator Rachael Zubick from the Community Policing Office says the team acts as eyes and ears for police on downtown streets, parks and beaches, and as goodwill ambassadors.  "In the five days they've been active, they've made contact with 431 adults, 54 youth, 67 children, and they've also removed 12 needles, 32 crack bags and two drug pipes from through-out the community."  Zubick says the program had gone from finding 431 hypodermic needles in 2004, to about a 100 last year.  "So, we're seeing drug use changes in the community. The other thing that they have found is that we have far less transient, homeless population right now." Zubick says the homeless camps have gone from a high of 30, to two, which means more transients are getting the help they need from facilities like the homeless shelters. "And the Safety Patrol are absolutely instrumental in providing that assistance, and hooking people up with those agencies. We didn't have that in 2007 which was certainly a benchmark year for all of us to work together, where we saw the Partners in Action team and all the other teams that came with it, really go into high gear."  The Safety Patrol, outfitted in blue shirts, will also be watching for cyclists using helmets, which is the law.  "It's still a massive issue."Zubick is hoping to be able to hand out 'Operation Chill' coupons to cyclists wearing helmets for a free cold drink, but has yet to receive those from a local merchant.
The Patrol members are pictured, from left to right, Becky Dodds, Allison Stahl, Morgayne Eby, Garrett Nickel.