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Letter to the editor

Police set to beef up their volunteer corps

With a new coordinator and plans for a training academy, the police department hopes to recruit more residents.

By RITA FARLOW, Times Staff Writer
Published January 13, 2008

LARGO - Faced with a declining number of volunteers, Largo police are ready to launch a new recruiting initiative.

The department has hired a new volunteer coordinator, who will oversee recruitment, training and assignments.

The coordinator will help gauge where services are needed most, using feedback from divisions throughout the agency. The department also plans to solicit help from residents and start a new academy to prepare volunteers.

Recruits must be at least 21 years old and undergo a background check.

The decade-old Volunteers in Policing program started with about 60 members.

"Through attrition and moving, the numbers have dwindled down over the years," said Largo police Lt. Mike Loux.

By last year, the ranks had thinned to 23 very busy volunteers, who gave 9,310 hours of service in 2007, Loux said. That's an average of 405 hours per person.

But some volunteers give far more time. Bob Larche, 72, has volunteered since October 1999. He logged 253 hours in November alone.

"I'm retired, but I get up at quarter to five just to come to work. I just love it," he said.

Volunteers are trained in two categories, support and patrol. Support volunteers help with administrative duties, such as filing reports, making deliveries and logging evidence, Larche said.

Patrol volunteers perform non-emergency patrol duties, such as directing traffic at crash scenes, writing parking tickets and cataloguing items in impounded vehicles. One of their most common duties is retrieving found property, such as bicycles that have been stolen and then discarded, Larche said.

They also perform home checks for residents who are out of town.

"If we find a window open or something, that's when we back out and call and they send a couple of police officers," Larche said.

Patrol volunteers cannot stop cars for moving violations or make arrests.

"Basically we observe and report," Larche said.

Larche said that volunteers have been spread thin lately.

"Right now, we find that the few volunteers we have, it's getting to be a little too much that we can't handle," he said.

Rita Farlow can be reached at farlow@sptimes.com or 727 445-4162.

WHAT DO VOLUNTEERS DO?

Support volunteers: help with administrative duties, such as filing reports, making deliveries and logging evidence.

Patrol volunteers: perform non-emergency patrol duties, such as directing traffic at crash scenes, writing parking tickets and cataloguing items in impounded vehicles.

[Last modified January 12, 2008, 21:12:52]