Volunteers In Police Service
Vince Giacolone - VIPS Director		Dennis Noel - VIPS Coordinator

About VIPS

The Rolla Police Department is committed to working in partnership with our citizens to improve the quality of life in our community. We are dedicated to solving community problems, reducing crime, preserving laws, ordinances and the constitutional rights of all persons within our jurisdiction.

The mandate of the Rolla Police Department, like most departments, is to protect and serve our community. The department takes great pains to recruit and maintain a membership of professional, caring officers and support personnel. Unfortunately, calls for service have been considerably higher in the last few years.  Offenses have been on the rise, and service-type calls have been even higher.  However, our commissioned officer strength has not kept up with these changes, causing The Rolla Police Department to remain, for the most part, in a reactive mode rather than a proactive one. At a time when our department’s limited resources are being stretched even further, our agency is turning to civilian volunteers to enable police officers to be more on the front lines of law enforcement, working to make our community safer. The Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS) program was established in January 2009 to promote effective use of the citizens who wish to donate their time and talents to further the goals of the police department in response to President Bush's call to service in 2002 for all citizens of the United States.

The Rolla Police Department is an organization committed to a partnership with our community, whose goal is to reduce crime and increase education in crime prevention. The Rolla Police Department is dedicated to principles of Community Policing. The basis of Community Service is composed of value-oriented citizens, dedicated to building the partnership between the Rolla community and the Rolla Police Department.

The mission of the Rolla Police Department VIPS Program is to serve as a volunteer support service to the Rolla Police Department, enhancing the effectiveness of community policing through the provision of administrative, and support services.

The Purpose of the VIPS Program
The Rolla Police Department has successfully addressed two core components of community policing – "community partnership" and "problem-solving" through development of a program of trained citizens actively assisting officers. The Rolla Police Department believes that our model of the VIPS program, even in its early stages has already been successfully implemented in our community. This is not a sworn officer reserve or auxiliary program. It is a unique partnership with citizens who are willing to volunteer their time in assistance of officers.

There are at least three tangible results that have occurred following the development of our VIPS program.

• Citizen volunteers, who after training have relieved patrol officers of routine tasks such as vacation security checks, morning and afternoon patrols around the schools within the city, and patrols of the city parks and bike trails. Providing just these tasks allow patrol officers to focus resources on more urgent law enforcement and community needs. This has freed patrol staff's time and increases work productivity, and allow officers to focus on tasks where their skills can be best utilized. Since January 22, 2009, VIPS volunteers have performed hundreds of vacation security checks, school patrols, and patrols around city parks and bike paths. In addition, volunteers assist the Criminal Investigation Unit with data entry and analysis. All this activity was formerly performed by uniformed officers. In the coming months, as more VIPS volunteers are brought on board, volunteers will begin to handle after-hours animal calls, noise complaints, leaving without paying calls, and radar speed monitoring in high violation areas. 
• A stronger bridge of understanding and communication with the community and community leaders. VIPS provide a comfortable, non-threatening, resource to the community - providing direct assistance to citizens who often feel their need or questions are too trivial, and reluctant to contact the Police Department. In just a few months the volunteers have become a respected voice in our community.
• Rolla Police Officers benefit from the diversity of working closely with citizens, and have turned to the volunteers as a community and personal resource, recognizing that these volunteers are citizens, but respecting the fact that they also understand the stress and difficulties of law enforcement as well.
  In the City of Rolla, volunteers are not new to police work or the criminal justice system. Rolla citizens have a long history of donating time and talent in order to extend the resources or increase the services of Rolla's public safety departments. They have served as reserve police officers, explorers, and as fire and emergency unit personnel. Without their help, many valuable tasks would not be accomplished. The VIPS Program was established to more effectively utilize this community support. The program not only ensures volunteers will have the best opportunity to work where they and the department benefit most, but to increase opportunities for citizens to help shape the organizational culture to reflect the community.
  Citizens volunteering to work in the department not only benefit department service delivery, they also gain an opportunity to both learn about police functions and contribute part of themselves to the organization which serves the Rolla community. The result is growth in citizen understanding and support of the Rolla Police Department as well as greater understanding and appreciation of citizens by police personnel.
  The VIPS Program also brings many indirect benefits to the department, both internal and external. The department culture benefits from exposure to the talents and insight of the citizens who volunteer and relationship between the community and department grow. For example:

  • Volunteers bring specialized skills, experience, and consulting abilities which would otherwise not be available in the budget
  • Working with volunteers provides opportunities for police department employees to see the community and police work from a non-police, citizen’s perspective.
  • Volunteers in the workplace provide opportunities for interaction between the public and the private sector and for sharing of personal experiences.
  • Volunteers gain understanding and appreciation of police processes and constraints.

If you would like more information about the VIPS program, please contact VIPS Director, Vince Giacolone, or VIPS Coordinator Dennis Noel, at 573-308-1213.