In the Alberta Legislature on Monday, Motion 505 by Central Peace-Notley MLA Todd Loewen was passed.  

The motion asked the Solicitor General to, “Explore options to establish a voluntary civilian corps to assist law enforcement.” 

Loewen says he is pleased that the motion passed but says there has been misunderstanding of what the motion means including accusations of empowering vigilante justice. He says this could not be further from the truth and offered clarification. 

The motion is not about creating a paid group or meant to be a replacement for the police. Volunteers would not be armed or respond to 911 calls. He also says it’s important to remember this is a motion, not a bill, meaning it is not an order to act, rather a recommendation.  

The Solicitor General may take the advice of the legislature to explore this option more, but it would require additional research, consideration and consultation on the merits of such a corp.  

As for the positive side, Lowen says that it would expand the relationship building already happening between rural crime watch or citizens on patrol associations and police. It would provide extra resources for police in situations needing crowd safety, patrolling, crowd control and other emergency situations like accidents, fires and floods.  

Loewen says the corps would provide increased opportunities for civic duty and allow people to participate in the safety of their community. It could relieve administrative burden on the police and free them up to respond to and resolve crimes in a timelier manner, as they would be doing less work volunteers could do. 

An example Loewen offers is trained volunteers providing traffic and crowd control at a parade. He also believes the services could help other first responders depending on the nature of the emergency. This is already happening in some capacity as volunteers are used by Search and Rescue to help locate missing persons and evidence in often remote and large areas. 

Lowen believes this is a fantastic opportunity for community involvement in policing and it is top of mind world-wide right now. All groups in the community would have a direct line to the police so their unique perspective would be heard. Lowen wants us to harness power of volunteers and not suppress it and appreciate and respect our volunteers without assuming they have a nefarious agenda. He says that without them, we would have gaps in services Albertans rely on.