Concession Street centre now looking after entire Mountain
Rumours of their demise are greatly exaggerated.
“We’re still going strong,” said Jeanette Farraway, one of the supervisors at the Concession Street Community Policing Centre.
Since 2002 centre volunteers have been taking reports of lost or stolen property or other public concerns, incidents of graffiti as well as dropping in on local business owners, providing child identification services, making note of red light runners and reminding vehicle owners to keep their doors locked.
The volunteers answered more than 1,400 phone calls and helped nearly 800 walk-ins last year.
All reports and incidents taken by the volunteers are reviewed by the police officer assigned to the policing centre.
With the closure last July of the community policing centre at Lime Ridge Mall, the centre on Concession near Upper Wentworth is now looking after the entire Mountain and they need more volunteers to continue to serve the public as a complement to the Hamilton Police Service.
“Most of our volunteers are students that want to get into the police force so their availability (is limited),” said Farraway, 73, who joined the policing centre six years ago.
The policing centre currently has about 37 volunteers and Farraway said they could use at least 20 more people to keep the office open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week.
She noted the policing centre is closed when they can’t get enough volunteers to cover the three, four-hour shifts.
Sandra Hager, the other supervisor, said volunteering at the policing centre is ideal for seniors who want to stay active and do something for their community.
“It’s fulfilling,” she said. “It makes you feel good.”
The two women are not only policing centre supervisors, but long-time neighbours and retirees from McMaster University Medical Centre.
Hager, 69, worked as a clerk and receptionist in patient services for 16 years and Farraway worked in hospital administration for 21 years.
Both became policing centre volunteers unbeknownst to each other six years ago after reading about a volunteer shortage in the Mountain News.
One of the newer services policing centre volunteers began back in June was doing follow-up calls to city residents who had police attend their homes after a break-in.
“After two weeks we call the victim back and we ask them if they have anything more to report, if anything else was stolen,” Farraway said. “We ask them if they would like to have the auxiliary police come and check their house to see how they can make it safe and we ask them if they’d like to have a victim’s services person come and talk to them.”
Last year policing centre volunteers made more than 1,600 call-backs.
In addition volunteers took finger, hand and footprints of nearly 400 children through the child identification program, previously known as Child Find in 2011.
Hager said volunteers have also gone out to remove graffiti in the area and to take down flyers posted on utility poles, although notices about garage sales and lost pets may be left up for a few days.
Policing centre volunteers must be 18 years of age or older, go through a police background check and interview and be willing to commit at least eight hours a month.
Hager said they will refer people who come into the policing centre to a police officer as required and will call 9-1-1 if the matter is deemed to be an emergency.
