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~ASE #: I <br /> <br />AUTHORIZE CREATION OF VOLUNTEER <br /> PUBLIC SAFETY AIDE UNIT <br /> <br />By: David Gustafson, Police Chief <br /> <br />Background: <br /> <br />In the past several weeks, the City Council has discussed with staffa proposal to create a cadre of <br />volunteers to work in conjunction with the Police Department. Under the proposal, a maximum <br />of ten volunteer "Public Safety Aides" of both genders and various ages, would be trained to <br />perform community crime prevention activities throughout the community. Generally, the <br />volunteers would provide services regular patrol officers don't currently provide due to lack of <br />time. Examples of activities are: <br /> <br />Ongoing. active participation in neighborhood watch activities. Volunteers will be <br />assigned specific areas of the City. <br />a. They will assist the Corporal and paid Public Safety Aide in setting up meetings in <br />their areas. <br /> <br />b. They will also be liaisons between their areas and the Police Department for concerns <br />such as traffic problems, vandalism, unsafe park equipment or questionable activities. <br /> <br />c. They will check businesses after hours on an "observe and report" basis. They would <br />use City staffcars, not patrol squads. <br /> <br />d. They will establish relationships with tenant associations that result from multi-family <br />housing and cluster housing. <br /> <br />Assist with Snow Mobile patrols. <br /> <br />Assi~l[ with community, functions such as the annual Bike Roadeo, Community Picnic, <br />Environmental Expo, events at the school. <br /> <br />Staff assistance will be necessary to establish and maintain a successful volunteer unit. The <br />proposal includes a recommendation to promote a patrol officer to the position of Corporal and <br />make that position responsible for recruiting qualified applicants, arranging training, <br />recommending appointments to the unit, formulating a duty schedule that integrates the unit's <br />work into the activities of the department as a whole and evaluating the effectiveness of the <br />program and the participants. This responsibility would be in addition to the officer's patrol <br />duties. <br /> <br />The Anoka County Sheriff's Department provides training for volunteer police reserves annually <br />at no charge to participants. That training takes place in the fall and until applicants complete it, <br />they will not be active. <br /> <br /> <br />