2009 Survey of IACP Membership Summary Results

In July 2009, the Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS) Program surveyed random selected IACP members via the program Web site. The IACP maintains a roster of more than 20,000 members from law enforcement agencies around the world. This survey was sent to 3,000 randomly selected members, 1,000 of which represent smaller departments and the remaining representing larger departments. Three hundred and six representatives from IACP member agencies responded. The information immediately below provides an overview of their impressions and experiences using volunteers. A more detailed analysis follows.

Part I of the survey asked for the agency’s profile.

10 percent of those targeted completed the survey.
92 percent of those targeted responded to the survey themselves.
Eight percent of respondents oversee the volunteer program directly.

90 percent of respondents represented municipal departments.
Five percent of respondents represented county-wide departments.
Two percent of respondents represented state-wide departments.
Less than one percent of respondents represented tribal departments.
Two percent of respondents represented other departments including a school police department, a Forest Preserve District, a Parish (in Louisiana), a Bi-county/state mandated department, and two townships.

83 percent of agencies currently utilize volunteers.
17 percent of agencies do not currently utilize volunteers.

Part II of the survey asked agencies without volunteers to let us know if they used volunteers in the past and their reasons, if any, for not using volunteers currently. Part III was for agencies with volunteers to learn more about their volunteer programs.

Of those agencies without volunteers

20 percent of responding agencies have had previous experiences with volunteers.
28 percent of those agencies listed the value that volunteers bring as the most interesting factor to utilizing volunteers.
21 percent of those agencies listed liability concerns as a barrier to implementing a volunteer program.

Of those agencies currently using volunteers, experience with volunteers varied significantly:

53 percent of law enforcement agencies have had volunteers for more than 11 years.
The total number of volunteers ranged from 3 to more than 1,000.

Agencies were asked about the structure and management of their volunteer programs:

75 percent of agencies have a dedicated manager/coordinator for their volunteer program.
Of these agencies, 48 percent said their managers were sworn employees. Twenty-five percent said their programs had a full-time manager.

Agencies were asked about their volunteers’ involvement in specific categories of volunteer activities

25 percent have at least five volunteers involved in all categories.
26 percent have more than 11 volunteers involved in all categories.

Respondents were asked to rate the importance of various factors referred to below. The following percentages of respondents indicated that the described factor was “important” or “very important.”

76 percent cited the ability to provide additional services.
75 percent cited enhancing citizen understanding of the police.
72 percent cited value added to the department.
69 percent cited enhancing the agency’s understanding of it community.
69 percent cited return on investment.
68 percent cited required training requirements.
59 percent cited the ability to deploy officers to frontline duties.
59 percent cited confidentiality concerns.
58 percent cited staff time requirements.
49 percent cited turnover of volunteers.
47 percent cited liability concerns.

Additionally, 62 percent of respondents rated the contributions of volunteers to agency effectiveness and productivity as “essential” or “very essential.”

Part IV of the survey asked about agencies familiarity with the VIPS Program and resources.

72 percent of respondents were familiar with the VIPS Program prior to receiving the survey.
45 percent of respondents were already registered VIPS programs.

The full report contains the following sections:

Part I: Agency Profile
Part II: Agencies Without Volunteers
Part III: Volunteer Program Profile, For agencies with volunteers in place
Part IV: Products and Resources
Recommendations
- Note: Recommendations are based on agency responses for future VIPS resources and activities.
Appendix—Detailed Responses

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2009 Survey of IACP Membership Summary Results