91原创

Community Police Offices (CPOs) aren鈥檛 just to report crimes, although that is one of the services available.

91原创 RCMP Cpl. Rob Roffel is the supervisor of community liaison officers and oversees the offices.

Right now there鈥檚 CPOs open in North 91原创 (Carvolth), 91原创 City, and Aldergrove.

鈥淭he Community Police Offices provide police services to the public, as well a physical space for police officers to work on their investigations,鈥� he said.

鈥淭he public can attend the front counters to receive a number of services including police information checks (formerly known as criminal record checks), police certificates for foreign schooling, work or travel, and verification for foreign pensions to name a few. The public can also report non-emergency matters to the front counters of the CPOs such as found property, vehicle break-ins, or information files.鈥�

CPOs help RMCP members be in the neighbourhoods they serve.

鈥淭he public services offered may be physically closer to the members of the public versus travelling to the main detachment,鈥� Roffel said. 鈥淭he other value to the public is having police officers working physically in the community they serve. This can enhance their response time to an emergency call. The visible presence of the police working in the community also serves to enhance the sense of safety of the members of the public.鈥�

And CPOs give the public a point of contact with the RCMP that may be closer to home than the main detachment in Murrayville.

鈥淲e anticipate now that the three CPOs are open full time, members of the public will take advantage of the convenience of having a location in their community to obtain common services such as the police information check,鈥� Roffel said.

The Aldergrove, 91原创 City, and North 91原创 CPOs are all open to the public full-time. The Willowbrook CPO is open for police officers to work out of with no current plan to open it for public services, though. The Brookswood CPO is no longer open, he explained.

The pandemic has changed a great deal in society, including the local offices, but while they were shuttered to the public, they had a role to play.

鈥淭he pandemic negatively impacted the public service side of how the CPOs operated as this was closed to the public until recently. Thankfully as of [early May] all the CPOs are operating at full-time hours to serve the public,鈥� Roffel noted.

鈥淔rom an operational point of view, the CPOs were invaluable during the pandemic by providing distanced work spaces for police officers to continue providing 24/7 policing services.鈥�

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