That sounds like a position most departments call their reserve unit. I know that every department around here has one like that. On the of the communities that boarders with my city actually has "community Volunteers" writen on the side of their squad. Just fyi alot of departments have a program like that.

Hey, that's how I got my start. There was an ad in the village newsletter looking for people to volunteer. I called and was originally told they were looking for seniors to come in during the day. It started out with one very messy training sergeant who couldn't keep his desk clean. I told them that when the sgt's desk gets messy enough to call me. He called the next day.

Every couple of months he would leave me boxes of mail to sift through. Nobody really knew who I was and would just walk by and look at me sitting in the department conference room.

One day he asked me to inventory videos & use his computer. I was "caught" trying to get into his office by an officer from community relations. When I explained who I was & what I was doing she labeled me his "personal cleaning lady". She also said there were better things I could be doing around there. I began working in investigations filing LEADS, prints, pawn shop report.

She started a Citizens Police Academy, from there a real volunteer program. There were 15 of us. I learned just about everything I do now as a volunteer. I became the coordinator. We would "patrol", writing fire lane, handicap parking, village sticker, & registration tickets, assist with traffic, vacation watches, trustee mail & would take bond money to courts & pick up warrants. The CSOs hated us at first because in the 1st 3 months we wrote over 750 P-tickets and, of course, the officers were skeptical of the "wanna-bees". But gradually we were accepted and considered part of the department in almost everything. They came to really depend on us.

The officer that ran the program was like a sister to me. She was the one that pushed me towards becoming a CSO, but she passed away from a brain tumor back in 2000. I still miss her so much.

She & I were the only ones who knew how the program ran. She did not even let her sgt know. The officer that took over hated me because I knew more than he did about the volunteers and claimed I was trying to make him look bad. He stopped the volunteers from working on the street.

In 2001 I became a part-time CSO but not at that department because of all the crap he pulled & lies he told. The guys in patrol were upset that I wasn't staying & helped me get where I am today. There is a verse in the Bible that says, "What man means for evil, God means for good." It was the best thing that actually could have happened. I'm doing things in my department that I'm sure most of you will never do as a CSO.

All because of a village newletter & messy sergeant.