Small, award-winning COPS Logan needs aid

Located in a small house on the outskirts of Gonzaga University’s campus, COPS Logan has been at different addresses in the north Hamilton neighborhood since 1995. The shop is renting its location from Gonzaga, paying a dollar a year in rent.

“We used to have students put in volunteer hours here, but not so much anymore,” said volunteer Charlene LaPlante. “I guess we could try to get that going again.”

COPS Logan has one of the smaller staffs among the 12 COPS Shops, and the staff tries to keep the shop open two days every week. Sometimes they put in a few more hours over the summer.

Last year the volunteers at COPS Logan won the COPS Leadership of the Year Award.

“We are really proud of that,” said LaPlante, who at one point was the only regular volunteer at COPS Logan. “We do as much as we can. We live here in the neighborhood.”

The Logan neighborhood has a lot of rentals, many of which have a high turn-over rate.

“We get the most calls about party houses, code enforcement and suspected drug houses,” said LaPlante.

The staff at COPS Logan process vehicle prowling reports from all over the city, and send them to the appropriate COPS shops in other neighborhoods so staff there can contact citizens.

“There are a lot of prowlings,” said LaPlante. “One week alone we got 40 reports.”

COPS Logan got its Neighborhood Observation Patrol program up and running again.

“When we do neighborhood patrol we also do graffiti and some code enforcement,” said Glenice Scroggin, who’s the facilitator for COPS Logan.

Once a year, for Night Out Against Crime, the shop pulls out all the stops for a big barbecue celebration.

“It’s always a big hit,” said LaPlante. “Lots of people show up and all the officers are there. It’s our biggest event of the year.”

COPS Logan’s biggest fundraiser is an annual neighborhood yard sale, which also helps raise awareness about COPS.

Their biggest need really is more volunteers.

“People can make a difference, even if they can only be here two or three hours a week,” said Scroggin. “Getting involved is doing something better for the neighborhood.”