John Bridgeland, Assistant to the President and Director of the USA Freedom Corps, participated in the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference in Philadelphia on Thursday, October 23. In his remarks, Bridgeland spoke about the important contributions citizen volunteers are making in more than 700 communities across the country through Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS). A component of Citizen Corps, VIPS provides training for volunteers to perform administrative and non-intervention policing activities to free up law enforcement professionals for frontline duty. During the conference, a new resource guide to help law enforcement agencies develop and establish volunteer programs was released.

This document has been designed for chiefs, sheriffs and other law enforcement executives interested in establishing or enhancing a law enforcement volunteer program. The guide includes information about issues to consider when developing a law enforcement volunteer program, sample documents (such as application forms and volunteer handbooks) and profiles of 26 existing programs.

The guide is being released on October 23rd at the 110th Annual International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference in Philadelphia.

A copy of the guide will be mailed to all of the law enforcement volunteer programs registered with VIPS in early November. If you are interested in receiving a copy of the guide, please e-mail your name and mailing address to the VIPS staff at info@policevolunteers.org. To read the Executive Summary of the Resource Guide, please click here.