One local man spends his volunteer hours supporting the local police as best he can.
Mike Burt was recently named Community Champion through the City of Prince George Volunteer Recognition awards for donating his time with the RCMP Community Policing Unit since 2010 and logging in 6,637 volunteer hours.
"It's nice to be recognized, that's for sure," Burt said, about receiving the award.
Before volunteering for the community policing unit, he was an auxiliary constable.
"So in total I have been volunteering in one capacity or another with the RCMP since 2007," he said.
Burt, who is currently the program coordinator for Citizens on Patrol, has always enjoyed his policing volunteer duties.
"It's a great way to be proactive in the community and in my role now being able to participate in those educational tasks is great," he added.
Burt organizes volunteers that do foot patrols, vehicle patrols, crime prevention notices, speed watches, distracted driving watches and attend special events.
"For a vehicle patrol we typically try and go out during busy times," Burt said. "So when the detachment and the police officers are busy we're trying to be out there and support them by our mandate."
The community policing unit of the local RCMP is the crime prevention section whose volunteers try to achieve common goals of seeing safe homes and safe communities through police-supported educational programs and services, the website says.
The best part is there are no two patrols that are the same, he added.
"You could go out on a Friday at nine o'clock at night and not be able to find very much going on," Burt said. "You could go out on a Tuesday at seven at night and there's all types of activity going on. So it's diverse in that way so it's great because it keeps volunteers interested and you never really know what you're going to find when you're out on patrol."
During a patrol, the volunteers are looking for crime in general, he added.
"So it may be a suspicious person, we might be patrolling late at night and find an insecure business and contact the police," Burt explained. "It may be someone that is swerving all over the road and is suspected of driving while impaired."
Speed watch is another educational component to raise public awareness.
"So volunteers will go to certain areas in town, whether it be schools zones or residential areas to conduct a speed watch," Burt said. "What that allows is to show the motorists their speed so the motorist knows right away whether they are speeding or not so that's quite educational and along with that we have our volunteers collect the statistics for the areas they attend so they look at the number of speeding vehicles, the number of vehicles that went by, etc., and then we have the ability to provide that information back to detachment and specifically the traffic section so that they know what we're seeing when we're out there and then they can choose to use those statistics as they see fit."
Burt is pleased the community has started to recognize the members of the Community Policing Unit for the volunteers they are.
"So that's really great," Burt said. "Being recognized by the public is very rewarding. So people know who we are and what we're doing and why we're there - for the community."
The community policing unit members are a diverse group of about 25 volunteers.
"We have retired folks, we have university and college students, we have the local resident that's been here all their lives," Burt said.
Burt understands the important role the RCMP play in society and that's why he's inspired to volunteer as he does.
"Our first responders and police are always helping community and if we can give back to them just a little bit, whether it's small or big it goes a long way," Burt said, who volunteers between 80 to 100 hours a month.
That's a lot of time dedicated to volunteer work on top of a full time career with the government.
"I have a very understanding and supportive family," he said. "It's a challenge but it's a good challenge and a rewarding one for sure."
Burt is always looking for more volunteers. If interested, call 250-561-3366 or visit the community policing unit at the RCMP detachment at 455 Victoria St.
Flip through The Citizen's Volunteer City series, featuring stand-out volunteers in Prince George:
