Deputy Chief credits Sergeant for reviving Auxiliary Unit

The Sault Ste. Marie Police Service’s Auxiliary Unit is back.

After the volunteer unit petered out about a decade ago, partly because some of its members went on to become regular police officers, Sault Police Sgt. Ben Bolduc has revived the unit, which now has seven members.

Police hope to see that number grow to 10 to 12 members.

“I have to give credit to Ben Bolduc on that, he did an excellent job (reestablishing the Auxiliary). It’s about community service and visibility and volunteerism,” said Deputy Chief Sean Sparling after the Sault Ste. Marie Police Services Board’s regular monthly meeting Thursday.

“It’s an excellent unit for police legitimacy. We get them out into the community at different events. They’re visible and they can engage the community,” Sparling said.

Auxiliary Unit members give extra police visibility at events such as parades and fairs, assist with crowd management at large community events, perform traffic safety initiatives, help out at police information booths at public events, provide a police presence in parks, cycling paths, walkways and other public spaces and take part in ride alongs with Sault Police officers.

Bolduc, Sparling said, “is expecting somewhere around three or more events for the Auxiliary per month. We’re planning on partnering them up with regular officers on bicycle patrol for the summer down on the waterfront, we expect to see them in the cars on occasional patrol as well and at a lot of community events.”

Sparling said it is hoped each Auxiliary Unit member can commit to at least three events a month “but the sky’s the limit as to how much time they can put in.”

Auxiliary members have the same powers of citizen arrest as anyone else, Sparling said, and “they go through the same full use of force training like our Special Constables, and they do quite a bit of extensive training in house before they actually get out on the roads.”

Sault Police Auxiliary Unit members, because of the province’s new Ontario Special Investigations Unit Act (2018) which comes into effect June 30, will fall under the regulations contained in that legislation.

Under the Act, Auxiliary Unit members will be formally categorized as ‘officials’ along with regular police officers, Special Constables and “any other person who may be prescribed.”

Previously, the Police Services Act did not include Auxiliary Unit members of any Ontario Police Service in investigations conducted by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU).

The SIU investigates when a police official is involved in an incident which leads to the death or serious injury of a person, a firearm is used in dealing with a person, or a sexual assault is reported by a person against a police official.

“They are people who volunteer their time and skills to the Police Service…they are not members of any of the police associations so they’re not afforded any of the legal indemnification that comes within those collective agreements,” said Sault Police Chief Robert Keetch at Thursday’s meeting.   

“They’re acting on behalf of the service, and I think there’s an onus on the service and the board to provide them with the same level of legal indemnification as it does to other officers should the situation present itself.” 

The board approved a motion by Keetch to provide the same level of indemnification given to regular police officers if involved in a SIU investigation.

Recruitment of new Auxiliary Unit members began last year, their training began in January, and the revived unit officially unveiled its presence at the Walk a Mile In Her Shoes fundraiser in support of Women In Crisis held on the Sault Ste. Marie waterfront May 26. 

Auxiliary members must be a minimum of 18 years of age.

“We have a number of college and university students, we have some that are established within the community. It’s really a cross section of people that are involved,” Sparling said.

“I know of at least two or three of them that are in there that are looking to get into policing,” said Sparling, who spent two years in the Auxiliary himself, adding other notable Sault police officers such as Sgt. Ray Magnan and Cst. Emily Coccimiglio also began in the unit.