The two distinguishing characteristics of a volunteer program within a police department are the need for security and sensitivity to the organizational atmosphere and mores. Those who supervise volunteers in law enforcement settings need to pay close attention to these characteristics if they want volunteers to be effective and comfortable. Security requires not only careful screening but making arrangements for volunteers to work in secured areas so that they are free to come and go.
Supervisors also have to prepare volunteers for the atmosphere, which is fast paced and high energy. People talk quickly, move quickly and use police jargon to communicate. Competition and control are strongly ingrained in the police personality, and as a result those traits show up strongly in the organization as a whole. Some volunteers have no problem with this; others struggle with it, and still others never adjust and finally leave.
Police are by nature suspicious. This may be hard for new volunteers who are trying to work with them and maybe make a few friends. Another challenge for new volunteers is adjusting to police humor and understanding the necessity for it. Police humor is quick, mocking, sometimes crude and can border on the macabre. While it is funny, its real purpose is to relieve stress.
A police department is no place for the faint of heart; emotional whiplash is experienced by officers and volunteers alike. Our volunteers have witnessed the angst of a seasoned police officer as he dealt with the aftermath around a victim of an unspeakable crime. We have seen an intimidating, self-righteous, simmering anger erupt from an officer in defense of a person unable to defend himself. We have heard feelings way beyond exhaustion and emotional depletion in the voice of an officer/hostage negotiator who had spent Saturday night and early Sunday morning trying to talk a potential suicide victim "down." The incident ended when the man killed himself with a gunshot to the head. The officer went home to little children waiting to celebrate Father's Day with their daddy. The duality of life and human nature is nowhere more apparent than in a police department. When volunteers are prepared for this, there is no place more rewarding to be of service.