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May 2013

New Issue of VIPS in Focus Available – Moving Your Volunteer Program Forward with Social Media

Social media continues to expand and evolve and with it comes new ways to recruit volunteers, stay in touch, reward their efforts, and maximize their efficiency in the course of their duties. This new issue of VIPS in Focus explores how your law enforcement volunteer program can tap in to the power of social media. Click here to read the issue.

For more social media resources, visit The IACP Center for Social Media.

National Volunteer Week 2013

For many of you, April was a busy time with receptions, city council presentations, and other recognition events to honor your volunteers during National Volunteer Week. At the National VIPS Office, we celebrated National Volunteer Week with the Fairfax County, Virginia, Police Department (FCPD). IACP Executive Director Bart R. Johnson was the keynote speaker for FCPD’s Annual Volunteer Award Ceremony. Director Johnson spoke about his experiences with and admiration of volunteer auxiliary officers in his early days as a trooper with the New York State Police. He went on to discuss how strongly he and the IACP support the Volunteers in Police Service Program and the work that all of your programs and volunteers accomplish at the local level.

If you would like to share photos or news articles of you volunteer recognition events or profiles of your award winning volunteers, please contact Jennifer Styles at styles@theiacp.org or 1-800-THE-IACP x804.

School Safety Online Training Series

The IACP, in collaboration with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice recently introduced a series of four school safety online trainings: Forming Your Safe School Planning Team, Assessing School Safety, Preparing for a School Crisis, and Responding to a School Crisis. These highly-interactive, introductory level trainings are designed to assist in the development of crisis response plans to prevent and respond to events that threaten the safety of school environments. The course is open to law enforcement, school officials, and allied stakeholders tasked with ensuring school safety. For more information, contact juvenilejustice@theiacp.org. To register, click here.

New Data Available on Senior Volunteering

According to new data released by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), senior volunteering is at a 10-year high – one in three volunteers is a senior age 55 and older. More than 20 million senior volunteers gave nearly 3 billion hours of service, at a value of $67 billion. CNCS found that the percentage of volunteers who are seniors has steadily increased over the last decade (up six points – from 25.1 percent in 2002 to 31.2 percent in 2011). Click here to read more.

COPS Office L. Anthony Sutin Civic Imagination Award

The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) is seeking nominations of collaborative teams of law enforcement and community members whose innovative civic interactions have transformed public safety in their community. Nominations are due June 24. Click here to read more.

VIPS in the News: Davenport Crime Keeps Dropping

We at the VIPS Program are proud to share the stories of local VIPS volunteers out in the field by publishing news stories on the VIPS website, like this one from the Davenport, Iowa, Police Department:

Davenport, Iowa, Police Chief Frank Donchez praised the work of officers, staff, and public safety programs that resulted in a 6.8 percent drop in crime in 2012 in a report cited by the city council in early May. The report showed a 7.5 percent decrease in violent crime and a 40 percent overall drop in crime in the last seven years. The chief highlighted a number of city programs that were instrumental in making Davenport safer. In particular, he highlighted the work of Davenport’s VIPS Program. The program’s 26 volunteers contributed 5,913 volunteer hours in the last year. Volunteers conducted 8,391 tenant background checks for landlords, through which they identified 145 wanted individuals and 34 sex offenders. They also recovered 114 stolen bicycles. Click here to read the full article.

Click here for more local VIPS news stories.

VIPS Question of the Month

Each month, a new Question of the Month is posted to the VIPS Web site. The April Question of the Month “How does your agency plan to celebrate National Volunteer Week April 21-27?” received 49 responses:

· 33 percent of respondents replied, awards banquet.

· 16 percent of respondents replied, highlight volunteers in agency newsletter or Facebook page.

· 10 percent of respondents replied, presentation to city council.

· 8 percent of respondents replied, press release to local newspaper or radio/tv station.

· 6 percent of respondents replied, recruitment drive.

· 27 percent of respondents replied, we recognize volunteers at a different time of year.

To answer this month’s Question of the Month, “This year the VIPS program is celebrating its 11th anniversary! How long has your volunteer program been in existence?” visit the VIPS homepage.

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