The police now have more eyes and ears on the street.
More than two dozen people became the first graduates of the Thunder Bay Police Service’s Zone Watch program over the weekend. They will be able to communicate with police through a secure web forum to discuss crime issues in neighbourhoods and also share some ideas. Member Keely Banning said she wanted to become a part of Zone Watch to help her community.\
“This seemed to be a very beneficial way of going ahead and helping them, ” she said. “I have a lot of ideas.”
Tom Nordin walks around his home and speaks with neighbours every day. The program seemed like a natural extension of what he was doing anyway he said.
“We get to work along with them and hopefully improve the neighbourhood along with that,” he said.
“It’s a nice feeling to know that you’re trying to do something for the neighbourhood.”
The training room at the police station was full of people of all ages from all different areas of the city Sunday afternoon. Rafael Palacios said it’s great seeing so much diversity at the table because everyone can draw from different experiences to make the program better.
“I really like the idea of being able to share my experiences. I’ve been involved with security surveillance for most of my career,” he said.
The two-day course also shed some light on what being a police officer means.
“It’s given us a real eye opener on what they deal with on a daily basis,” he said.
