City of Portage la Prairie staff are joining in the effort to help curb crime in the community.

Public Safety committee chair Ryan Espey says the city plans to provide operations department staff with Citizens on Patrol Program (COPP) training.

"They're undergoing the training so they can be on the alert for situations where they can help out, such as people in distress, lost children or suspicious activities," Coun. Espey says. "Of course, that means not intervening, but rather calling it in and just reporting it to RCMP so they can investigate further."

"The COPP group is an amazing group that goes out and volunteers their time," continues Espey. "Adding our city staff to the people who can look out for our community is a great thing."

RCMP community liaison officer Const. Sean O'Keefe says the city floated the idea of providing COPP training to staff, to add extra sets of eyes and ears for RCMP around the community. He says the training focuses first on keeping yourself safe -- never getting in harm's way -- but also looking at what information police will need.

"Descriptions and exact locations of where things might be, especially if something is occurring at that moment," O'Keefe says. We can address the issue much quicker if we get good information."

O'Keefe adds, this will create around-the-clock citizen crime reporting, and will be of benefit for law enforcement officers.

"(COPP) is usually out on evenings and weekend, and city employees work during the day for the most part," he says. "In that respect we'll have those extra eyes and ears out there for us, and hopefully it will most definitely benefit the community."