Just after 7 p.m. Saturday, site supervisor Brittany Doyle and fellow patroller Noah Krupa set out from their headquarters on 11th Avenue toward High Street.
Wearing dark green jackets with yellow “CCP” emblazoned on the back, they take a different route each evening as they go looking for everything from missing manhole covers and leaking fire hydrants to fights and shootings.
Doyle and Krupa are not police officers. They are citizen patrollers for the nonprofit Community Crime Patrol. Pairs armed with just flashlights, radios, cell phones and training walk or bike the University District, Franklinton, North Linden, Merion Village, German Village and the Near East Side.
Columbus City Council recently renewed its relationship with the nonprofit, granting it another $375,000 to continue operation.
Extra eyes and ears for safety services
Some nights patrollers run into serious situations, like fights or car accidents. Doyle has been present during two shootings, both near 13th Avenue and High Street last summer.
Doyle also remembers a call when she saw a man stumble off a curb and hit his head. He fell behind a traffic barrier, out of sight.
“So my partner and I both gloved up, (and) called CFD immediately. They got there pretty much instantly. It was awesome,” Doyle said. “And it turns out that he was actually a little intoxicated, but he was also on blood thinners. So had we not seen him, there's a high likelihood he actually would have died there.”
Most nights, however, are quieter, though not without purpose. Within an hour of setting out on Saturday, for example, Doyle and Krupa spotted a 300-gallon trash can missing its lid.
Krupa called it in to CCP’s dispatcher using his cell phone, because radios are reserved for more urgent situations.
It may seem like a little thing, but keeping lids on trash cans makes a big difference in day-to-day life.
“We're non-intervention,” Doyle said. “We take care of a lot of quality-of-life issues. So, you know, those things that most people walk by or drive by in their day to day, streetlights out, traffic lights out, potholes that could eat your car.”
Doyle has been a patroller for 11 years. She started as an intern to fulfill a requirement of her criminology course at The Ohio State University.
She doesn’t mind the cold, which is good, since patrollers will walk until temperatures drop to negative 10 degrees with windchill. She doesn’t mind getting her steps in either. Patrollers walk five to 15 miles a night. Those on bikes travel even further.
The job starts at $17 an hour and comes with the uniform and accessories. Sometimes as many as 20 patrollers are out on any given night.
Safer communities
Patrollers learn how to file reports and be reliable witnesses, Doyle said. They also do defensive tactics training with Columbus Police or an independent instructor and are certified in first aid.
“We're just civilians and we're just out here trying to make sure that everyone's having a safe, happy city to live in.”- Brittany Doyle, Community Crime Patrol
After all, the job isn’t just about watching.
Doyle said patrollers also like to talk with people in the communities where they walk.
“Any of us will absolutely talk your ear off if you have questions. We love people knowing what we do,” Doyle said.
She added that because of the uniforms, flashlights and radios, CCP patrollers often get mistaken for police. She said, however, that patrollers are just like everyone else.
“We're just civilians and we're just out here trying to make sure that everyone's having a safe, happy city to live in," Doyle said.
According to CCP, around 100 patrollers have gone on to become police officers, with around 60 of those staying in Columbus. Others become attorneys of social workers, Doyle said.
In 32 years, patrollers have reported more than 60,000 incidents, have helped in 900 arrests, and identified dozens of drunk drivers, an arsonist and a kidnapping suspect.
Patrollers also once stopped a sexual assault and were awarded the Meritorious Public Service Award by the Columbus Police for their actions.
