Saugeen Shores honours Community Watch for tireless community safety efforts (2024)

Members of Saugeen Shores Community Watch, a volunteer organization focused on community safety for over two decades, were thanked for their contributions and tireless efforts at the Sept. 23 town council meeting.

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Mayor Luke Charbonneau read a list of approximately 20 current Community Watch members before inviting those present to receive certificates of appreciation.
“Although the program has been suspended, we offer our deepest gratitude for all the Saugeen Shores Community Watch leadership and volunteers have contributed to our community,” Charbonneau said.

He said Community Watch has been a patrolling volunteer civilian organization that worked with Saugeen Shores Police Service (SSPS) to reduce vandalism and crime to make the community “safer place to live.”
Pairs of volunteers in cars patrolled the community, usually at night on weekends from May through September, calling police to report any suspicious activity.

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Two Community Watch members in attendance – Doug Longmire and Nancy Wynoch – received certificates.
Deputy mayor Diane Huber, chair of the Saugeen Shores Police Service Board, noted that over the years, close to 100 people have been Community Watch volunteers.

Following the meeting Huber said the Community Watch program was paused by the Police Service Board in response to the Community Safety and Policing Act, which took effect in April, and limited the role of Community Watch volunteers and introduced “onerous” training requirements,
“We’re hoping we can come up with something over the next little while …to see what is possible, what could happen,” she said adding the volunteers feel “what they were doing was meaningful so (the pause) was sad.”

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Some Community Watch volunteers are also “disappointed it was cutoff” according to Community Watch director Joe Sholtes who said there also may be some misplaced “resentment” to police, when it was the province that made the police act changes.

In a Sept, 24 telephone interview Sholtes said any additional “boots on the ground” are helpful to police, and while Community Watch has been “basically disbanded, permanently or temporarily” there’s still a role for civilian “eyes and ears.”

The Police Service Board “terminated” the program in April faced with a staff review that said policing has become much more litigious with civil proceedings becoming more common, and SSPS should refocus its community engagement efforts.

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The review report said while the groups’ efforts have been greatly appreciated, there is significant evidence that suggests the efforts are “ineffective at crime prevention or reducing fear of crime.”
“It has been documented that community watch programs do not reduce crime rates, impact clearing rates, increase the public calls for service or increase the positive perception of the police,” the report said.

The mandate and mission of the current members could be continued through alternative means including transitioning to Independent Neighborhood Watch Groups, separate from direct police endorsement that could share information and report suspicious activities, reducing potential liabilities on the Police Service, the report said. adding the overarching goal should be to maintain community safety while adhering to professional standards and addressing societal needs in a changing policing landscape.

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