Dedication, hard work and training make it possible for the 23 regular Squamish RCMP members to better patrol and protect - and it's all thanks to nine auxiliary RCMP volunteers.
RCMP auxiliary president Grant Wilson has been a part of the organization for five years and said it's a fulfilling way to contribute to the community.
"It's very rewarding and interactive role to play in the community - I love it," said Wilson.
"There's just so many different things we get involved in our community. We have two different roles, we either work directly with an RCMP in enforcement as a sort of support and compliment to them, or we also do things without members that are community type events."
Wilson said the rapport between regular members and the auxiliary is great, and Sea to Sky regional detachment officer Neil Cross made the RCMP's appreciation known during a crime statistics presentation on July 20.
"They volunteer a huge amount of their own personal time and are key to our operation," said Cross. "They bump up police presence when normally only one officer might be available for an event."
RCMP auxiliary members are required to take about 100 hours of training before they're deemed official. They study the criminal code, the young offenders act, traffic enforcement, self-defence, how to attend court and public speaking to name a few.
"It's sort of a condensed version of what the regular members get," said Wilson.
The voluntary members have to work at least 160 hours per year, which averages out to 13 hours per month. Wilson said the commitment is quite manageable, and most members actually contribute more than 200 hours.
The difference between a regular officer and an auxiliary is discernable by their uniforms - the auxiliary uniform lacks the yellow stripe down the side and around the head, and a patch with the word "auxiliary" is in plain sight on the front and back of the uniform.
They aren't allowed to carry guns or tasers but carry a baton and OC spray, which they are trained and certified to use if necessary.
Nonetheless, most people treat them the same as they would a regular police officer.
"What's really interesting, and we were told this in our training but I didn't believe it, is that people miss those patches and treat us like regular members," said Wilson.
"Most people take us seriously, but every once in a while you get some hothead that doesn't. Then we just call the regular member over and he does have the power to place them under arrest."
Wilson's favourite recent service was checking people's tires who were heading up to Whistler after a heavy snowfall earlier this year. He said everyone was very appreciative.
"Everyone was so happy to see us there," said Wilson. "They said 'I'm glad you're making sure that I'm safe, that cars that don't have the proper tires to go up to Whistler are being taken off the road.'"
Wilson said they had to turn away several cars and tell them either to "go buy some chains or go back to Vancouver."
He said interacting with the public is his favourite part of being an auxiliary.
"They were all very appreciative and glad to see us there doing that because they knew it was for the sake of everybody," she said. "They want to get to Whistler, they don't want a three-hour tie-up because some idiot had bald tires and went off the road and caused an accident.
The auxiliary are limited in some ways because they aren't allowed to carry out enforcement so in any potential conflict situation, they are accompanied by an officer.
Monitoring community events is often left up to auxiliary members.
"There's always community events coming up," said Wilson. "In summertime we're involved in all the bikes races for traffic control and in those cases we can be by ourselves. We close roads down for the bikes to go through but there's no potential for arresting anybody. "
They also monitor events such as the Canada Day fair and fingerprinting for kids aged four and five years old at school fairs.
Wilson said auxiliary members accompany the RCMP members on the road as often as possible since only one regular member is assigned to each patrol car. The limitation occurs because only two or three officers are on the road at once and they need to cover a wide area.
Although some auxiliary members aim to join the regular force at some point, most are just looking for a way to serve their community and ages range from late 20s to early 60s.
