Posted: 7/9/2005 10:33:33 AM EDT
| Hi guys I work for a small department and we are kicking around the idea of starting a auxillary force. The chief asked me to find out some info so we can maybe present it to the city council. Mainly some type of traing curriculm and department policy on aux. officers. The liability part comes into play to. If anyone has any info they would like to share please email me at [email protected] |
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Don't know what state you are in, but check your state laws on what powers an Aux would have vs. Special/Reserve/Permanent Intermittent POs. In MA the powers and WHEN they can use them are very different for Aux vs. the other designations. That said, many PDs in MA use Aux "illegally" regarding the restrictions of state law. [In MA, Aux Police by law report to the Director of Civil Defense and can only be activated during a state of emergency.] The best advice I can give you is to contact a PD on Cape Cod, where they use Special Police for the Summers each year as most towns mushroom from a sleepy Winter town to as much as 10x the population during the Summer. Falmouth, Barnstable, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Dennis, Provincetown might be good places to contact. I was a Special PO for a small town (25 sworn FT, 35 sworn Specials) for 18 years. We had a separate command structure which led to all sorts of "political" problems with the union and some FT officers. By Mass Gen'l Laws we had to attend a Reserve/Intermittent Police Academy run by the same "POST" as the FT academy, we had to qualify with firearms, CPR and First Responder First Aid just the same as the FT POs. We were only paid when we worked shifts and details, lots of mandated volunteer time. The more successful systems ran their Aux/Special PD program with a FT officer in charge . . . instead of a separate command structure. A good example of this is the program at Wayland, MA PD where a FT Sgt runs their program. I believe this is still true, although my info is ~15 years old on Wayland. HTH |
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An auxiliary program can be a great benefit for your department...or it can be a disaster. My department has a fantastic auxiliary program. I'll try to describe it as best as I can: The auxiliary officers are sworn and have 24/7 arrest power. They all must complete the full academy (approx. 650+ hours) but they have the option of doing the regular day academy which lasts about 16 weeks or the part-time evening/weekend academy which lasts approximately 45 weeks. Either way, it's the same training as the regular officers. Once they graduate from the academy they have to complete the same 450 hour field training officer program that everyone else has to do. Once they complete FTO they are considered to be "released" (from training) and allowed to patrol the city on their own. They are expected to handle all of the same calls that the regular officers handle. The dispatchers will, when they can, try to not send them on calls that will obviously have them tied up in court or on a big investigation. The auxiliary officers can go through any training or special school they want except K-9 and the state forensics academy (both are too long and cost too much). Auxiliary officers can try out for two positions on the SETT (SWAT was not pc enough?) team once they complete SWAT school and can do bike patrol once they complete bike school. They also regularly work with vice/narcotics detectives during prostitution stings and reverse drug buys...both as under covers and uniformed arrest teams. The auxiliaries are required to work a minimum average of 20 hours a month. They must also keep up on all of the same training and in-service requirements as the regular officers. They wear the exact same uniforms and carry the exact same equipment as the regular officers. With the exception of the badge (which has "AUX. OFFICER" instead of "OFFICER") there is no way to distinguish an auxiliary from a regular officer. The only other difference between auxiliary and regular officers are the unit numbers. Reguklar officers have 300 series numbers and auxiliaries are 400 series. There are no separate auxiliary ranks (corporal, sgt. etc...). When working, an auxiliary is just another officer....and the sgt. adds them to the lineup as such. Administratively, there is an auxiliary association that has a governing board (president, VP, sec. treas., etc....) and a lieutenant who acts as a liasion to the command staff. It is similar to a vol. fire department in this respect I suppose. When it comes to "hiring" new auxiliaries, they conduct it exactly the same way new regular officers are hired. They collect the applications, then test the applicants (written, physicle agility, oral interview), then they have the remaining applicants go through polygraph, psychological, and medical exams. Then the remaining applicants get voted on by the auxiliary association body and the results are forwarded to the chief.....who makes the final decision. Auxiliary officers are considered employees and are covered by the city and police department liability and workers comp insurance. They also serve at the pleasure of the chief and can be terminated without cause (never happened in the last 30 years that anyone knows of though). The working relationship between the regular and auxiliary officers is excellent. One reason is that over 80% of the full-time regular officers started off as auxiliary officers. Another reason is that the regular officers know that the auxiliary officers are just as well equiped, trained and capable as they are because they have to maintain the same standards. The command staff primarily see a benefit from the program because it saves the department money by working parades and special events (primarily held on weekends....which most regular officers don't like to give up) that would otherwise require overtime and also during emergencies where they need extra manpower that exceeds the number of regular officers on hand (like during the "beltway sniper" shootings, severe weather, etc...) . The regular officers primarily see a banefit from the program when they get an auxiliary to work for them so that they can take personal leave or so they can attend a special school when their squad would otherwise be short. As an example, during a recent weekend, a regular officer was getting married and wanted some people from the opposite shift to be at his wedding. Four auxiliary officers worked in their places so that they could attend. I could go into more detail......but my fingers are starting to hurt.  I wanted to add that my department serves a 12 sq mile city of about 25,000 residents. Not counted are the thousands of tourists or the There are about 80 sworn officers and 20 non sworn employees in the department. |