District Will Arm Volunteer Officers

Greater Visibility Sought for Force

By Clarence Williams

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, May 27, 2007



For the first time in nearly 20 years, the D.C. police department plans to issue guns to the volunteer officers who help back up the city's patrol force.

Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier is expected to arm the reserve officers next month with police-issue Glock semiautomatic pistols in a move to raise the force's visibility and capitalize on the volunteers' free labor.

About half a dozen reserve officers will probably be in the first group to be armed after they pass background and psychological checks. They completed 40 hours of classroom training and qualified on the firing range this year. Officials suggest that dozens of volunteers might be used to back up professional officers with force in coming years.

"These guys are dedicated, and that's where they want to work, where the action is," said Assistant Chief Alton Bigelow, who oversees the program. "The whole goal is to have a well-organized, well-trained reserve police force."

Bigelow said officials plan to start firearms training for about 25 more reserve officers this summer. The city is also mapping a five-year plan to increase the size of the corps and expand its responsibilities.

The department's Reserve Corps includes more than 160 trained volunteers who help with traffic, crowd control, patrol and administrative duties. They are required to work a minimum of 16 hours a month. Although they wear the same uniforms as sworn officers, the volunteers carry only police batons, cellphones and a pepper-type spray.

The armed volunteers will be able to perform all of the duties of a sworn officer, including making arrests, officials said. Other reserve officers can make arrests only if they are with a sworn officer.

Some reserve officers have waited years for the chance to get a gun, and they consider carrying a firearm an opportunity to be more useful. The department stopped giving firearms training to reserve officers in the late 1980s. The last group to get weapons, in 1988, had to turn them back in soon after receiving them. The D.C. Council approved emergency legislation to take the guns back because lawmakers worried that the city would not hire enough paid officers if volunteers could wield the same power.

Those 11 reservists got their guns back weeks later, after the emergency legislation was lifted, but only a few armed reservists remain active.

"We waited a long time for them to say okay," said reserve Cmdr. Charles A. Brown, 62, who has volunteered for 32 years without a gun but is part of the group that will become armed. "I can't understand the delay. We haven't received any resistance from the community or the council."

Many reserve officers face the same risks as their sworn counterparts, Brown said. "Just putting on the uniform puts you in the danger of the job."

Outside a New York Avenue nightclub one recent night, a rowdy crowd edged toward a fight. Reserve Capt. Dennis Starks flashed his patrol car's emergency lights and dispersed several men who looked ready to fight, even though he was armed with only a police radio and silver captain's bars on his shoulder.

"All the bad guy sees and the public sees is the additional police presence" that reserve officers provide, said Starks, a lawyer by day, as he stepped back into his cruiser.

The move to arm some D.C. reserve officers comes amid controversy over the risks and roles of volunteers on patrol. In March, two unarmed volunteer officers in New York were killed as they tracked a slaying suspect. The incident prompted some to urge the department to arm its reservists, whom it calls auxiliary officers. Across the country, many volunteer programs do just that.

Tod Burke, a criminal justice professor at Radford University who has studied reserve police programs across the country, said that as long as reserves receive training similar to that of professional officers, "it is almost critical they are armed" when patrolling in urban areas.

"We have security guards at malls who are armed," said Burke, a former police officer. "Why should we not arm the reserve officers? Let's face it, most police officers will go their entire career and never use their weapon, except at the range."

The most recent move to arm some D.C. reserve officers was initiated by former chief Charles H. Ramsey.

Last year, after promising for years to increase the reserves' role, he authorized 16 volunteer officers, each of whom had at least 12 years of service, to undergo the same type of firearms training as professional officers.

Eleven reserve officers completed the training. But only about half are expected to pass the more rigorous required background and psychological tests, officials said.

For Starks, 46, a Chicago native, volunteering is his way of contributing to his adopted city, and he has helped out for 18 years.

"We're not children wanting to be a cop, walking around like John Wayne," Starks said. "This is serious business."

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