CHICO, Calif. — Retired Chico Police Chief Mike Maloney recently called public involvement "essential" to effective law enforcement, and throughout his administration asked citizens "What have you done to make Chico safe today?"
Ironically, Maloney was recently forced to cut overtime and make assignment changes in the department which threaten to cut the legs from under Volunteers in Police Service, one of the city's most efficient law enforcement tools.
VIPS was begun in 1994, and in less than 20 years has compiled well over 200,000 hours of service.
"The organization has become very self-sufficient," said Lt. Linda Dye, the Police Department liaison to VIPS. "It has its own governing board, conducts its own training, and plans its own events," Dye said.
"The immediate problem isn't the VIPS, its the Citizens Academy these folks have to take in order to become police volunteers," Dye said.
"We like the academy approach because it gives our volunteers a good background in how the police function, and gives us a chance to take a good look at the people we're going to put out there," Dye said.
"We have to keep the program accountable to the public," she said.
While there are no plans to eliminate the 16-week academy, Dye said its future could be jeopardized by a shortage of police personnel available to teach the classes.
"Most of the academy classes are taught by officers, dispatchers and community service officers working on overtime," Dye said. "We can't assume things will go back the way they were, so we don't know exactly how the academy would work."
Dye said the department is committed to completing the current academy. A prolonged city budget crisis could make the reassignments more permanent.
Gayla Warner, 62, has been a police volunteer for nearly 16 years. Now a supervisor in the group, Warner said people join because they want to be part of a meaningful community safety effort. "It's pretty exciting when you realize you're freeing up an officer to do more important duty."
Dye said VIPS commonly handle traffic control at serious accidents and other emergencies, as well as tag abandoned vehicles and issue citations for handicap parking violations.
"One of their best known duties is vacation watch," Dye said, noting that VIPS raise money to support the group by accepting donations for house checks. Another, Dye said, is the annual "mall crawl" which has VIPS driving around Chico shopping centers during the holidays, to help deter car burglaries.
"One of the things we always say about the VIPS is, 'we couldn't do our job without them'," Dye said.
VIPS struggled through humble beginnings and a lot of doubt from officers that the group could be used effectively, but Dye said it proved itself one night in 1995.
"There was a huge gas explosion at the corner of First and Mangrove avenues, and officers were faced with a traffic and crowd control nightmare," Dye said. A commander made a decision to try calling in the VIPS. "Within 10 minutes, 10 volunteers in uniform arrived at the scene," Dye said.
Warner said there are currently 63 active VIPS, down from an all-time high of 74. About 10 VIPS candidates are expected to come out of the current academy. "You've got to keep replacing volunteers," Warner said. "The average time is about two years."
Since assignment changes in the department have also pulled Community Services Officer Tim Truby away from oversight of the Neighborhood Watch program, Dye said that effort could suffer some losses. "I think the more established watch programs will survive, but some of the newer ones may slip through the cracks."