Is Volunteer Policing a Good Idea?
MC, 17.06.2009 18:45 Volunteer police may cause more problems than they solve. Here are two cases that caused me to ask, is this a good idea? Volunteer Police: Is it a good idea With issues like health care, corporate welfare, war profiteering, and more I never gave volunteer police much thought. That changed over the last couple of weeks due to two different events. One had to do an old story I found regarding an incident where a male officer engaged a 17-year-old DUI in a high-speed chase through downtown Medford, presumably to impress an unauthorized female volunteer police “ride along”. The chase ended in the death of the 17 year old and a 26 year old his car struck. The officer left the scene of the accident after notifying dispatch he would not be filling out a report (likely due to his right not to incriminate himself) to take the unauthorized rider home. I did not think much about the wisdom of police departments employing volunteers while researching this story as my focus was
