Laudable or liable: volunteer police on the front line in US modern policing

Abstract

Given the tremendous variation between the over 18,000 police agencies in the United States (US), volunteer policing in the US can be neither easily described nor easily defined. Police agencies throughout the US use volunteers in different roles, with divergent amounts of responsibility and training. This article will review the literature on volunteer policing in the US and examine the variations of authority and responsibility of sworn (warranted) and non-sworn volunteer police. Potential liabilities of using volunteers in roles for which they have not been trained will also be discussed, as well as the benefits for the agency and the volunteer that may be realised when volunteers can be placed in roles that successfully meet the needs of the community. Finally, the article will look at the future of volunteer policing in the US, with particular attention paid to the current efforts nationwide to develop a consistent model and encourage the use of standardised ‘levels’ of training and authority.