NAPS hires community policing coordinator

Nishnawbe Aski Police Service has hired a community policing coordinator to provide more community policing services in the 35 Nishnawbe Aski Nation communities it serves across northern Ontario.
“I’ll be coordinating with all the different regions, all the different detachment supervisors within Nishnawbe Aski Police (NAPS), which will then turn over to our employees and front line officers for community policing endeavours and initiatives,” said Const. Chris Carson, the new NAPS community policing coordinator who works out of NAPS headquarters in Thunder Bay. 
“We’re trying to switch the role of the general front-line officer, who basically responds to general calls for service, to be more proactive in the community.”
Carson said crime reduction strategies and crime prevention are also part of the plan.
“It’s going to be a long process,” Carson said. “It’s going to require dedication from our officers, our supervisors and also the people within Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) because we are going to be calling on volunteers for committees in the northern communities. It’s all going to be about opening up the relationship between the officer in the community and the community members.”
Carson said strategies will also be introduced to address prescription drug abuse, Elder abuse and youth out during the night.
“Our long-term goal is basically to switch our general way of policing (from) responding to reactive calls to having more of a community-based police service,” Carson said. “To open up those relationships, build relationships and overall to reduce crime and improve the quality of life for the citizens of NAN.”
Carson said he focused on building community links, partnerships and friendships during his four years of employment with NAPS, including three-and-a-half years in Cat Lake and half a year in Wapekeka.
“Just walking around and introducing yourself and saying, ‘hey, do you need a hand with this,’ and attending different feasts or sporting events went a huge way to building community links and community partnerships because you never know when you are going to need to call on those people for anything,” Carson said.