NNSL (Mar 30/98) - The community constable program is growing rapidly across the North.

Twenty-six community constables from around the Northwest Territories and two from southern Alberta gathered in Yellowknife for the first community constables conference last week.

The program began in 1994 as a two-year pilot project with six constables in Fort Good Hope and six in Coral Harbour. Sponsored by the NWT Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, the program quickly grew to see a graduating class of 22 officers, who also took in a month of rigorous training with the RCMP in Regina.

The constables' duties range from dealing with everyday bylaw issues such as loose dogs to investigating serious community crimes.

Several delegates at the conference agreed that, despite its growing pains, the community constable program seems to be working.

Doug Norrad of Fort Smith and Terry Patenaude of Cambridge Bay were formerly bylaw officers who took the community constable course sponsored.

"We've made some objectives here that we need to obtain now," Norrad said during the conference.

Patenaude said he foresees the program could grow enough to eventually see him and fellow constables creating their own municipal police forces.

"We're going to be like the RCMP, only at a municipal level," he predicted.

Jaypetee Audlakiak, a community constable in Broughton Island who spends much of his time working as an interpreter for the RCMP, said he enjoying getting some "hands on" experience in search and rescue.

"Whenever you help somebody and they say 'thank you,' they make you feel helpful to the community," Audlakiak said.

Norrad also said he has few regrets about taking the job.

"It's not as stressful as the RCMP, but it has its moments," said the 20-year resident of Fort Smith. "It's great experience working with the same community you're from, the community you've grown up with."

"You're going to come across people who just don't like a uniform. Other days, you've done something in the community that all the kids take home to mom and dad and they say, 'Hey, you're a great guy.'"

Patenaude said he relishes working with students in Cambridge Bay and has made his motto, "enforcement through education."

However, the perception of community constables lies largely with the political powers that be, Patenaude noted. If the community's senior administrative officer is in favor of exacting law enforcement, things run smoothly. Otherwise, life can be difficult.

Although Norrad and Patenaude said they're accepted in their respective communities, they admit racism is occasionally an unfortunate reality of the job.

"It's like an ugly snake that rears its head every once in a while," said Patenaude, whose wife is Inuit. "With Nunavut coming in, for some strange reason racism seems to be picking up a little bit in some cases."

Peter Kaput, also a former bylaw officer, has experienced full-fledged support from the public in his community of Rankin Inlet. He said the people there didn't hesitate to throw their support behind him when he contemplated resigning from his position because he felt he was underpaid.

"The whole community went through the local radio and wanted me to do the job," he said.