On Sunday evening, March 25, about 150 people gathered at Morgan Hill’s Crossroads Christian Center. They were attending a vigil service in honor of 15-year-old Sierra LaMar, a Morgan Hill resident who had mysteriously disappeared on her way to Sobrato High School more than a week before.
Among the concerned friends, family, neighbors, law enforcement officers, clergy and media representatives were seven volunteers from Morgan Hill’s Volunteers in Policing Program who were called out to help the event run smoothly. They set up barriers, greeted participants, directed traffic within the parking lot, answered questions and remained alert to help in any way that might become necessary.
VIP is a new concept in Morgan Hill; the program started last year after the initial session of the Citizens Police Academy. Having learned about the many activities of the Morgan Hill Police Department, 11 of the 20 graduates volunteered to assist the city’s police force.
After the second academy ended in the fall, an additional five men and women joined the program. They all have the same goal: to become an auxiliary unit of the MHPD (unarmed and with no power of arrest beyond those of any private citizen) which will help meet the needs of the department in serving the city’s residents.
They are in the process of receiving training in such aspects of police work as traffic control, fingerprinting, radio procedures, vehicle reports, and emergency first aid.
In addition to completing the Citizens Academy, VIPs (an unfortunate acronym, since their goal is service to others) must pass a background check, agree to devote a minimum number of hours quarterly and attend a monthly meeting. Issued a uniform (which is furnished by the Community Law Enforcement Foundation, a nonprofit organization) that prominently identifies them as volunteers, they have already been active in providing services to residents which were formerly done by paid personnel, allowing sworn officers time for more important tasks:
– Processing mail
– Assisting records personnel with data entry
– Transporting RADAR trailer to locations around the city
– Patrolling neighborhoods on vacation checks and monitoring graffiti
– Manning booths at the Mushroom Mardi Gras and Taste of Morgan Hill
– Processing non-criminal fingerprints
– Transporting and caring for abandoned animals in the city kennel
VIP members were recently called out on two occasions to enforce the perimeter at a crime scene and a hazardous materials spill while police and fire personnel were active at the locations.
Commenting on the new program, Police Chief David Swing explained, “Volunteers are a force multiplier for our police department and enable us to provide an enhanced level of service and spend more time interacting with the community.”
Although VIP is relatively new in Morgan Hill, programs already existed nation wide and in neighboring cities like Gilroy and Los Gatos. It can be traced to President George W. Bush’s State of the Union Address in 2002 in which he called on Americans to serve a cause greater than themselves. Since then, the International Association of Police Chiefs and the U.S. Department of Justice have provided support for a Volunteers in Police Service to help law enforcement agencies enlist volunteers and put them to maximum use.
