More Eyes for the Police : Volunteer Surveillance Team: Community policing at work

A year-old, citizen-volunteer program in the San Fernando Valley has proven its worth as an adjunct to professional policing, helping not just to deter crime but leading to more than 40 arrests. The LAPD program, called the Volunteer Surveillance Team, is being closely studied and has already become a model for other police departments. The program’s effectiveness argues for its expansion to other police divisions throughout Los Angeles.

The Volunteer Surveillance Team does not use guns and patrol cars as its weapons but camcorders, binoculars, radios and notebooks. About 50 people are on the team, available on request to provide the police with extra eyes. Over the last year they have taken part in about 60 operations. Their help has led to the arrests of suspected burglars, drug dealers, car thieves and vandals, and their recorded evidence of crimes being committed has resulted in numerous guilty pleas.

The volunteers, who get 12 hours of training by the police, provide their own equipment. They are under orders to stay out of sight at assigned observation posts and to avoid confrontations with suspects. Police and volunteers say the program has steadily improved as experience has increased.

Government should welcome, though of course not require, citizens to become proper allies of overstretched police departments.

Lt. Kyle Jackson, who oversees the Devonshire Division’s volunteers, calls the effort “the most pure form of community-based policing . . . the crime-fighting technique of the future.” The contraction of local government revenues even as demands for services continue to rise seems certain to increase the need for citizen volunteers in many areas, not least in combatting crime. The Volunteer Surveillance Team is a gratifying example of what caring and committed people can do.