Swelling Ranks: The LAPD has been pushing...

Swelling Ranks: The LAPD has been pushing volunteerism in recent years. The department now has 2,129 civilian volunteers citywide, not counting reserve officers. . . . In the West Valley alone, the number has quadrupled to 300 in three years, and “every month our dependence on them grows,” said Officer Iain Hamilton.

Expanding Roles: More people want to volunteer than there are jobs, so new tasks have been sought. West Valley now has a volunteer bike mechanic for bicycle patrols. A volunteer “crisis response team” is also in the works. Members may get paged at 4 a.m. to comfort the traumatized and bereaved and “just be a good Samaritan,” said West Valley Capt. George Ibarra.

Paying a Debt: Reseda teacher Barbara Joan Grubman, 63, above with Officer Kimberly Allen, is on the crisis team. When her own husband died at home, a police officer offered to sit with her all night, she explained. Volunteering to do the same for others “felt like the way I could pay back that policeman, wherever he is.”

Long Hours: Volunteers also answer phones, take reports and hold babies to free police officers for other duties. . . . Not all jobs are glamorous: Sandra Munz, 47, does surveillance for the North Hollywood precinct. “Basically you sit in your car until you see something suspicious,” she said. “It’s fun. But sometimes it’s the most boring thing in the world.”

Donning the Badge: Reserve officers, of course, represent the LAPD’s oldest form of volunteerism. About 150 reserves aid Valley police, including “doctors, engineers and plumbers,” said Lt. John Desmond. . . . A proposed overhaul of the reserve program would more than double its size.