Volunteers In Partnership

Since 1981, we at the Melbourne Police Department have relied on volunteers to help with our many tasks. Effective crime prevention requires the support of a partnership between the police department and the community. 

The Melbourne Police Department is proud to have a volunteer workforce that helps form that partnership, and works with the department to improve the quality of life for residents of the City of Melbourne.

Volunteers work in a variety of assignments including clerical assistance, parking enforcement, telephone contacts, vehicle transport, and data input. As the program grows, volunteers will assume more duties both in the department's facilities, and in the field.
 

Volunteer Citizens Observance Patrol (V-COP)

As an extension of the Melbourne Police Department’s Volunteer in Partnership Program, the Volunteer Observance Patrol assist the Melbourne Police Department by improving the quality of life in the community.  V-COPs form a mutual partnership with officers and employees to supplement the department’s Patrol Division, freeing the paid staff to perform other necessary duties.  This program places trained and qualified volunteers in specially marked vehicles to perform duties such as:

• Assisting citizens with disabled vehicles

• Helping direct traffic at accident scenes and during special city programs

• Patrolling neighborhoods

• Helping in non-injury parking lot crashes – assisting drivers in exchange of information

• Performing vacation house checks

• Running radar for speed violation documentation

• Serving as back-up for school crossing guards (upon state certification)

• Removing minor road obstructions and/or directing traffic around major obstructions

• Delivering equipment to traffic and crime scenes

• Recovering and labeling found property

• Obtaining and updating business emergency cards

• Parking enforcement

• Assisting in special details and events When requested, assisting patrol officers in situations which require a standby, but not necessarily a police officer (i.e. standing by for a tow truck, help fill out paperwork, etc.)

V-COPs are trained to be the department’s eyes and ears.  V-COPs are trained volunteers only, and are not vested with any law enforcement authority.  V-COPs DO NOT have arrest power. 

All V-COPs attend a forty-hour training program facilitated by the Melbourne Police Department’s Volunteer Coordinator.  The last two hours consist of the student riding with a certified V-COP Field Training Officer for a final evaluation.  The V-COP candidate will complete all aspects of the training as indicated on the program check sheet before being granted a certificate of completion signed by the Chief of Police, and added to the roster of qualified V-COP personnel.

VIP and V-COP volunteers must be at least 18 years of age and willing to donate 12 hours a month.  Information about the V-COP program and  volunteer opportunities are available from the Activities Coordinator, Jane Meier, 409-3362, or by email.  Application forms can be accessed here in pdf format for printing or downloading, or can be requested from the Volunteer Program Coordinator.