The Community Safety Officer (CSO) program officially launched last week on Wednesday with a barbecue in the parking lot in front of their office. Gurneet Jawanda is one of the officers and says it's to allow them to meet people in Portage la Prairie. 

"We'll let them know what our role is in the community, how we can help people, and how the community can help us to identify threats to our town. We just want to thank the Bear Clan for helping us with our barbecue and I hope people will help them, as well, with donating so they can do their job better. These are the resources that we're going to interact with a lot. Then we can help some vulnerable people get the required help."

Gurveer Jassal is another CSO. 

Dawn Froese was there on behalf of Big Brothers Big Sisters and says she's glad to actually get to know them a little bit better.

"I think having that extra presence in the community can only benefit our community, as well as the non-profits. I think word is getting out. I don't know if everyone quite understands everything they do yet, which is why this barbecue is such a good idea. You can ask them questions and you can pick up a pamphlet that tells you a little bit more of what they're doing."

Ken Wystowski has been in Portage for years. 

"I wanted to come back here to retire because I love the town and I love people. I think the people here are very nice. You can walk down the streets and a lot of people just say hi to you. I suppose that's good to have the Community Safety Officers here. I always felt safe."  

He adds he didn't know about the CSOs and learned about their efforts. 

Red Apple staff member and key holder Tamara Vrooman adds she likes the CSO members close by.

"Usually, if they come in, it does make a big difference with just their presence in the store. Sometimes, they're a little bit too far away and they don't get here in time. So, it'd be nice to have more that are more central to just stay downtown."

She explains many still don't know that they're here now.

"I wish they could stand at our front door all the time," she laughs. "There's been at least four or five incidents in our store. One day, we got their helped with two out of three. I hope they stay and I hope we can get some more."

Keystone Sports Excellence store manager Dylan Lee also adds it's a great program to see in Portage.

"We've gotten quite familiar with a few of the officers already and instantly, when they came into the building the first time, they made an impact with us and the rest of the employees to combat theft around town. We have a lot of young workers," continues Lee. "When we have problems like that going on, it's great to have that extra set of eyes. All the officers we've met have been great so far, and really take a lot of stress off the employees and the ownership." 

Lee says they had an incident two weeks ago when they felt quite anxious about some people in the store.

"We gave them a call, and they were there in about two minutes. As soon as they walked in, you could just feel the relief from not only myself, but the rest of my staff, that it took a lot of anxiety off of us."

He adds he thanks Mayor Sharilyn Knox for putting the program together. 

"We feel like it's going to be very beneficial for the long run as well as the near future, as we've already seen great benefits from it. We're really happy to have them around town and feel a lot safer with them in the community."
 
RCMP Superintendent Jeff Asmundson out of Dauphin was present and explains it's a wonderful partnership between the City of Portage la Prairie and the RCMP.

"Portage la Prairie's very progressive and is one of the first communities in Southern Manitoba to take on this CSO program. The Community Safety Officers are a forward-facing force for the city to be tasked by them, but in conjunction with us and supporting our endeavours to keep a safe community. Many communities are inquiring about it. It's a program that's supported by Manitoba Justice, as well. The City of Thompson has had them for a while. Portage la Prairie is one of the first here in the south. We're looking forward to more communities engaging in the same thing to provide public safety."

He notes the program offers another piece of visibility with uniformed officers on the street to take on some of the tasks that the RCMP doesn't necessarily have to do anymore.

"But it's still all part and parcel. We have a piece of the public safety aspect and also it can help the City with their City bylaws and their own challenges and issues in their communities."

Portage RCMP Superintendent Zane Semaniuk agrees that it's important CSOs be here, noting it forms partnerships between the two groups. 

"We fully support and are engaged with our Community Safety Officers here in Portage, and we're part of the hiring process with the City. It's gone really well and a great partnership to have. Feedback about the visibility aspect of the group is quite positive. The more we have visibility from the RCMP and the CSOs, it's great for our community. And that's what we're hearing. People want to see them. It's great on Saskatchewan Avenue from the business side, too. Everything's positive when we have more visibility from both groups."

Director of Public Safety for the City of Portage Brad Bailey feels it's just a fantastic program. 

"It's meeting a need for a community that we didn't have. They're not there to replace specialized police forces; the RCMP and City policing. But they're there to meet that demand that our residents and our business owners are looking for, and that's somebody to show up in a reasonable amount of time if they're having an issue. RCMP is very busy. So, they can't do that all the time for minor calls."

He adds they're finding that the CSOs are filling a gap, and their presence along Saskatchewan Avenue is invaluable. Bailey says it gives a sense of security, safety, and somebody to talk to. He notes they're out in the community, they want to talk to people, and they want to engage people.

"Feedback has been very positive from everybody. It's a welcome sight in town. As we grow and develop the program, we hope that we can put more officers on the streets and meet some more demands outside the Monday-to-Friday timeframe. CSOs are another layer of policing that you can see. Recently, we had a vehicle fire downtown in the core area, and the officers were there. They're going to be present. They're going to be doing crowd control, doing some traffic control, and assisting the fire department as well as specialized police forces, being RCMP."

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