Chelsea COPs celebrate at summer picnic

Members of Chelsea’s Citizen Observer Patrol and the Chelsea community gathered to celebrate nearly 20 years of service and a few special members.

During the COP Annual Summer Picnic on June 28, a group of almost 75 individuals sat down for a BBQ dinner at the Chelsea Community Center. COP director Jim Thornton thanked everyone who was in attendance and invited up Jay Jerman, COP No. 1, to share a bit of history on the program.

After the City of Chelsea officially incorporated in 1996, there were not many emergency resources, Jerman said.

“We had a volunteer fire department, … we had no police department and we had no money,” Jerman said.

Jerman and a few other founding members heard about a Citizen Observer Patrol program and proposed it as an option to keep the city safe, and in 1998, the COP program was established.

“The real benefit of a program like this is there’s no payroll,” he said.

The COPs are an all-volunteer group, and they serve as the “eyes and ears” of the city. COPs work with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office and the Chelsea Fire & Rescue Department for training, and they offer assistance when possible.

Volunteers also help with traffic control following car wrecks and during city events, will patrol local businesses and neighborhood and call in suspicious activity to the sheriff’s office.

Following Jerman’s speech, Thornton invited all of the former directors and co-directors of the COP program, as well as Sheriff John Samaniego, former sheriff Chris Curry and Chelsea Fire Chief Wayne Shirley, to come to the front of the room. He thanked everyone for the work they had done in building and maintaining the COP program.

Thornton also thanked COP member Judy Cain, who helps put on the COP Awards Banquet each year. A lot of times, there are individuals whose work is not noticed because it goes on behind the curtain, Thornton said, but those people are part of the reason COP and their festivities can run smoothly.