NCJ Number
210887
Journal
Campus Law Enforcement Journal Volume: 35 Issue: 3 Dated: May/June 2005 Pages: 24-28
Date Published
May 2005
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article describes the many ways police reserves can be utilized and examines the effect of national accreditation on volunteer hiring and training.
Abstract
Tight budgets and challenges with police officer recruitment have led many police agencies to rely on their reserve officers to fulfill important duties within the agency. Reserves can be assigned a number of functions outside of the patrol duties that have typically been assigned to reserve officers. This article describes many nontraditional uses of reserves, including using reserves to complete internal affairs investigations and background investigations and to fulfill the role of internship coordinator or tactical officer. Reserve officers are also ideal candidates for fulfilling specialty road or patrol assignments. Some of the challenges of using reserve officers are also identified, such as the challenge of providing adequate training to reserves and the problem of possible reserve backlash when fulfilling police recruitment duties. Police agencies are encouraged to look at other agencies throughout the United States to gain more knowledge about the many functions these volunteer officers can fulfill. References