The North Bay Police Service is looking to implement an Auxiliary Police Program.
Daryl Longworth, North Bay's police chief, admits he started his policing experience as an auxiliary officer.
He says they are looking to add eight auxiliary officers.
"Those members will be assigned to volunteer work within the community in a different modified uniform to assist our officers in community events and they can be used on patrol as well, to assist our officers on patrol. and we're hoping to launch that later this year," said Longworth after Tuesday's monthly police board meeting at North Bay Police Headquarters.
Longworth says they started laying the groundwork for the program in the fall of 2024.
"We've developed some new procedures around it," he said.
"Now it's a matter of finding the people training the people outfitting the people and getting them engaged."
Longworth says many of the officers are excited about the program including those who have experienced the program working for other police services who have used auxiliary officers.
"It's a good segue into policing if you're interested in policing as a young person. if you're just a community-minded person who wants to do something volunteer-wise in the community, this is a great opportunity," he said.
As Longworth noted, the auxiliary officers would primarily be people with full-time careers away from the police.
"We expect maybe eight to 12 hours out of them a month, where they would come in and help at a parade doing a traffic checkpoint at a community, working down by the waterfront at Armed Forces Day wandering around in uniform with our officers," said Longworth.
Again, the key is creating more police visibility within the community.
"It increases that visibility because my experience has been people see that uniform, they see this shoulder flash," he said.
"They don't recognize, it's not a police officer, they just see police. and it's one extra way we can increase visibility in the community."
