Kent Driscoll
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (June 15/05) - Insurance companies are keeping one crime prevention program from starting and are threatening the future of another.

Mike Lowing wants to help get intoxicated people off the streets of Yellowknife, but his group, Community Patrol Services, can't get insurance.

The Yellowknife Community Wellness Coalition learned that if they get a separate insurance policy for its Community Patrol Services program, the coalition will lose insurance for their Citizens on Patrol program.

"We were quite shocked. We're good to go, with the exception of this insurance," said Lea Martin, senior co-chair for coalition.

"We haven't started training yet, because there's no point in training until we have insurance," said Mike Lowing a firefighter and spokesperson for Community Patrol Services.

Community Patrol Services wants to find intoxicated people and help them before they become a police problem. Citizens on Patrol looks for crime and reports it. Both groups fall under the umbrella of Community Wellness Coalition.

Lowing's group is sitting on a $25,000 grant from the National Crime Prevention Centre and the program is on hold until insurance issues are resolved.

"It's the risk factor. We've learned that this project does not exist anywhere else in Canada," said Martin.

The coalition has gone through three insurance brokers since last August.

"We're frustrated. It is the only reason we're waiting and we are adamant that we will get it," said Martin.

The city declined to extend insurance coverage to the coalition.

City can't insure them

"We were told that it would not be possible to put them under the city's insurance," said Mayor Gord Van Tighem. "We did give them other options to pursue."

One of the options the Mayor suggested was contacting managers of a program in Anchorage, Alaska on which Community Patrol Services is modeled.

The Alaskan program, which is insured through a downtown business levy, helps get 900-1,000 people a month off the streets of Anchorage.

The plan is to help intoxicated people before they become a problem for police, taking them to shelters and to the hospital.

Between May 16-29, Yellowknife RCMP responded to 62 complaints of people causing a disturbance in public, many of them intoxicated.

Some volunteers have offered to patrol Yellowknife without insurance, were turned down.

"They're willing to sign waivers, but we want to protect their livelihood as well," said Martin.

The coalition is now trying to get an insurer for both programs. Citizens on Patrol Services already pays $750 a year in liability insurance and another $3,000 a year for their two cars.

The patrol had a problem getting their vehicles insured. Insurance companies wanted to classify them as patrol vehicles, which would have cost $10,000 annually. The volunteers just report crime, convincing insurance companies they were less of a risk.