April 16-22, 2023 is National Volunteer Week and Constables of the OPP Auxiliary Unit attached to the Southern Georgian Bay Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are no strangers to volunteering to help make their communities safe.
The Auxiliary Unit volunteer Constables give back to their communities by providing support to frontline officers through focused community initiatives such as “Lock It or Lose It“, Safe Guard Home audits, fraud presentations to seniors citizens, Santa Claus and Remembrance Day Parades, along with seasonal food and toy drives.
The Detachment has an Auxiliary Unit comprised of 14 officers which includes an Auxiliary Staff Sergeant, two Auxiliary Sergeants and 11 Auxiliary Constables. These officers provided over 1500 hours in 2022 conducting tasks within our communities.
Specially trained members of the OPP’s Auxiliary Policing Program also support the full time regular OPP officers by conducting Property Security Reviews of homes and businesses for the OPP SafeGuard Ontario Property Security Program. This program is a public awareness and education initiative has been very well received by the community as the Auxiliary officers present the home and business owner the principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) to help reduce re-victimization of property crimes.
OPP Auxiliary Units mission is to provide fully trained volunteer Auxiliary members to assist in the delivery of traffic safety and community-based crime prevention initiatives and to perform police duties only in special circumstances, such as during an unforeseen emergency that the front-line officers of the OPP require additional resources. Here in the Southern Georgian Bay area, regular officers enjoy being supported by their volunteer counterparts while on patrol on land but also while on the water conducting marine patrol duties and many other community related duties.
Members of the Southern Georgian Bay OPP Detachment wish to publicly thank these volunteer officers for their dedication in helping to increase public safety in our communities during National Volunteer Week. We also challenge those community members who feel they are up for the Auxiliary challenge. https://twitter.com/OPP_CR/status/1648048451261800448
