The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office is searching for volunteers to participate in a community patrol program in the Thunderbird Farms and Hidden Valley area.
A group of concerned citizens met Saturday at the Mountain View Community Church on West Papago Road south of Maricopa to learn more about Citizens on Patrol. The program already is established in other unincorporated areas of Pinal County, including areas of Apache Junction, Queen Valley and San Tan Valley.
Pat Prince, director of Citizens on Patrol, encouraged the small crowd to get involved so they could be the “eyes and ears” of the sheriff’s office. The county doesn’t have a lot of sheriff’s deputies, she said.
“We want to keep ourselves safe, our homes safe, our communities safe,” Prince said.
Volunteers patrol a specified area in a labeled patrol vehicle for 16 hours a month and report any suspicious activity to the sheriff’s office. The volunteers do not confront anyone and are not allowed to carry weapons.
Their observations and presence makes a difference, said Erin McLoughlin, a volunteer who manages the San Tan Valley Citizens on Patrol. People are discouraged from committing a crime because they know the volunteers are looking for suspicious activity.
“They see that car and know someone’s watching,” she said.
McLoughlin, who began volunteering around three years ago, said she has seen crime decrease in the neighborhoods she has helped patrol.
“When we’re out there really patrolling, especially if there’s been a lot of issues and we concentrate on a certain area, you can actually see the difference,” she said.
For example, the Gold Canyon area used to have a lot of problems and now is one of the safest areas in county, McLoughlin said.
