PRINT THIS STORY:

CHANGE TEXT SIZE:

CANADIAN MALL VOLUNTEER PATROL CURBS CAR THEFT

By Donna Mitchell

The Community Volunteer Patrol at Surrey Place has reduced vehicle theft from an epidemic rate of 27 cars a month to three.

On a crisp April morning last year, a would-be car thief tried to help himself to a Honda Accord in the parking lot at Surrey (B.C.) Place Shopping Centre. Unfortunately for him, he was spotted. Mall security personnel dashed to the scene and yarded — that’s Canadian for yanked — the offender through the window he’d smashed, then held him until police arrived. But it wasn’t mall security that first saw the rogue.

For years, car thieves like this one plundered the parking lots of the 625,000-square-foot mall, taking an average 27 vehicles per month, and patrons were getting as sick of the problem as the mall’s management was. So they decided to do something about the problem together, forming the Community Volunteer Patrol, a citizen crime-busting group consisting of college students — some of whom have ambitions of joining the Royal Canadian Mounted Police — parents, high schoolers and even senior citizens.

The mall was not the only hunting ground for car thieves. The problem was rampant in Surrey, a fast-growing Canadian city of 335,000 residents that lies 25 miles southeast of Vancouver. More than 7,000 vehicles were stolen from various areas throughout the city last year, according to Pat Jeannotte-Bunse, manager of the patrol. Ironically, one of the reasons car theft rose at the mall was the success of private security bicycle patrols at the city’s mass transit commuter lots, which prompted criminals to take their custom elsewhere.

The program is working: Car thefts at the mall are down to three a month and, as a bonus, the mall’s management is enjoying a closer-than-ever relationship with its surrounding community. Five years into the program, the patrol had prevented the theft of an estimated 1,600 cars worth a total of C$6 million ($3.7 million), based on the loss rate in 1995.

Volunteers patrol the property in teams of two, combing through the parking lots on foot or by bicycle, or watching from rooftops. But they do not confront criminals. Instead they observe, keeping in constant contact with the volunteer office by radio, then step aside to let security personnel handle suspects. That way, they do not bump heads with criminals or trip up regular mall security.

Volunteers include college and high school students, parents and senior citizens

Volunteers work at least one four-hour shift per week, and as long as the mall is open, the patrol is on duty, said Bunse.

“Their mandate is to be the eyes and ears for the mall; they are very observant people,” said Kathleen Allisen, Surrey Place’s general manager. Besides stemming car theft, they have thwarted shoplifters and helped reunite lost children with their parents.

The program, combined with seminars on car theft prevention that the mall sponsors, has drawn the mall and its community more tightly together, organizers say.

“Most of our customers are aware of, and appreciate, the program,” said Allisen. “The customers in the Surrey area know the battle that we’re up against.”

There are currently 40 volunteers enrolled, although more than 300 people have passed through the program since 1996. Bunse said that ideally she would like to maintain a force of about 100 volunteers.

Despite its relatively small size, the group has gotten a lot of favorable attention from the authorities. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which provides local municipal police services to many communities across Canada, has acknowledged the volunteers with certificates and helped provide training. Mayor Doug McCallum has lauded the program, and last year, when the patrol celebrated its fifth year of operation, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien sent a letter of congratulations.

“It’s been an excellent program to cut back on the car thefts in parking lots, plus the personal belongings that people happen to leave in their cars,” said McCallum, adding that it has also enhanced relations between the mall, the police and the community.

Now other shopping centers are following Surrey Place’s example. Willowbrook Shopping Centre, in neighboring Langley, B.C., for instance, is launching a similar effort; both malls are managed by Bentall Retail Services, Vancouver.

“We’d love to see the program implemented throughout Surrey and the country,” said Allisen. “We even get calls from centers in Chicago and Toronto to get info on how it’s working and how it runs.”

The program’s costs are minimal, adding up to C$44,000 ($27,816) a year. The mall allots the volunteers a small office with a bit of frontage onto the common area and provides them with two-way radios.

For the owners of the mall, there is an added benefit to the patrol: Surrey Place is owned by ICBC Properties, the real estate division of Insurance Corp. of British Columbia, the provincial government’s Vancouver-based car insurance firm, which each year funds the program. It would have ended up paying for many of the cars the volunteers have saved from thieves.

Licking the crime problem has meshed neatly with a planned major renovation and expansion that will turn Surrey Place into a 1.8 million-square-foot mixed-use development, scheduled for completion in January 2003. Even the center’s name will change, to Central City. Still, Allisen said, the patrol was spurred by crime rates, not the upgrade.

© 2008 ICSC. All rights reserved. | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy | Contact ICSC | ICSC Home |