Yellowknife (Oct 11/04) - There may be a new volunteer force patrolling the streets of Yellowknife in the coming months -- a group dedicated to getting intoxicated people safely off the streets.

The project is still in its infancy but Mike Lowing, an emergency medical technician and firefighter, said it has already secured some financial backing and the support of the RCMP.

Known as Community Patrol Services, the project is modelled on Anchorage, Alaska's Emergency Alcohol Service System.

In Anchorage, a city of 260,000, a van manned by a state-certified driver and an Emergency Medical Technician patrols the city and responds to citizen calls. They approach publicly-intoxicated people and offer to help them.

The inebriates are then medically screened and reviewed, treated if need be, and moved either to the hospital or Anchorage's Transfer Station. The station has room for 52 people and gives them a warm place to spend the night, as well as offering help with counselling and treatment programs.

Lowing said the transfer station also collects data on its users regarding age, ethnicity and recidivism, which helps them target future problems.

The project has had "very tangible results, very positive and measurable success," said Lowing.

The Anchorage program has a yearly budget of $750,000 and operates "almost 24/7," said Lowing. This, he adds, is too ambitious for Yellowknife.

The Community Patrol Service in Yellowknife will be comprised of trained volunteers. Instead of a transfer station, inebriates will be taken to one of Yellowknife's shelters, the hospital or to police cells. Lowing is planning consultations with the Salvation Army and the Women's Centre. People who accept help will be medically screened and assisted first.

"This is fundamentally a medical model, although it does have crime prevention spin-offs," explained Lowing. "It should hopefully free up police resources."

"People look at (inebriates) as an inconvenience, an eyesore, a problem, but these people are at very real risk on the street, either of injuring someone or suffering an injury themselves."

Lowing said the patrol will likely target four main groups: severely intoxicated individuals, elders, women and youths. The common theme is that all are at a particularly high risk when they are intoxicated.

Lowing said elders can fall and injure themselves, women become susceptible to violence, and "most of the people we have freezing to death outside are traditionally intoxicated youths."

The focus of the program is broader than just alcohol, said Lowing. It will include those affected by any other intoxicating substance.

The program, still in the "baby steps" phase, is operating from a $25,000 grant from the National Crime Prevention Centre's Community Mobilization Program. It is run by the Yellowknife Community Wellness Coalition.

The Wellness Coalition also runs the COPs program, Citizens on Patrol, but Community Patrol Services will differ in that it intervenes instead of merely reporting problems to police.

Ultimately, said Lowing, "we're not out here to be heroes. We're trying to make these people safer and make the community safer."

"We're trying to stop the revolving door."

Lowing couldn't say when the program might get started officially. The program's board of directors still has to draw up a framework and policy manual, and then recruit and train volunteers.

"If I have my way, I want to start hitting the street in November," Lowing said.

"It's going to be rewarding, but it's very challenging."

Volunteers will have to be trained in medical and police procedure, administrative work and self defense.

"This whole city runs on volunteerism," said Lowing. He said that may pose a challenge for the program because many prospective volunteers are already affiliated with other agencies.

RCMP support program

Sgt. Steve McVarnock, detachment commander with the Yellowknife RCMP, said "the concept is definitely something we support."

"It's too early for me to say what our involvement will be but we do support it, absolutely."

RCMP will assist in training volunteers, said McVarnock. "They need to be trained in police procedures and in risk assessment so they can approach intoxicated people safely and move them to wellness centres."

McVarnock said the new patrol could allow the police to work on more "pressing issues."

"If they're helping address the more passive intoxicated people, it will give us more time to focus on criminal investigations, for instance."