I am the Community Service Officer for the Macomb Illinois PD. My uniform is black BDU's with shoulder patches and a soft badge (patch) on the chest. The only deffensive woepon I have is OC spray. I have not had to use it in my 4 years of service but I have had to draw it several times just in case. Every time we deal with the public we have the same chance of being harmed as a police officer. I do wear a vest despite the discomfort. There are several police officers in the department that would like for me to carry a firearm. One of the range officers would like to put me through the firearm training but the Chief is against it. I do go out to the range and shoot somtimes and I am very capable of qualifying. Once a year I have a LT. that brings up the firearm issue but so far it has been denied. When I attended CSO Training several others carried firearms. I think that for me it would be a good idea. I work a shift that is inbetween first and second. On first shift there are only usually only two officers on duty and I often find my self acting as their back up on minor calls. Things that start out minor have a way of escalating quickly. I would feel safer with a fire arm. On the other hand it could get you into more trouble. The most recent time I wished I had a fire arm was on a Junk Vehicle inspection. A man was not very pleased with my presence and would not let me on his property. His body and verbal language was becoming very aggressive so I called for 10-60. The man looked me in the eyes and said "What are you going to do, you don't even have a gun." He turned and ran back into his house. I didn't know what he was doing, I was afraid he was going to get a gun so I got into my vehicle and drove around the block untill a police officer arrived. That was the first time I really felt naked without one. I will probably never carry a fire arm but I think I should.

Here in North Las Vegas PD, we are issued blue paramedic style pants and a bright red polo shirt with "CSO" and a badge with the words "civilian" above the badge (in case there was a POST certified CSO). The theory behind the red shirts is so that we will not be confused for officers, however, the shirts make a excellent target. Its funny how our Explorers have a light blue shirt with a real badge.

We are issued pepper spray and a radio. We are currently using second hand bullet proof vests, however, we were able to talk the department into getting us our own vests fitted to us. We are trying to get tasers, however, that might take a while.

Hello,

I am A CSO Officer for Bell Gardens Police In California. Do you CSO's Have tasers now? Or still working on it? If you could email me at rnavarro@bgpd.org I would appreciated. thank you.

R. Navarro #389

interesting, we sort of have the same problem here, our Volinteer and Americorp people seem to have better uniforms and vehicles then we do??? I cant understand it eather...They look more like officers then us too?