A Uniform But Not A Check Or Gun

Auxiliary Officers Supplement Police

By Allison Klein

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Stephen Smith retired from his job after 36 years with a major financial company. Instead of traveling the globe or playing golf all day, he decided to become a uniformed police officer and patrol the streets of Fairfax County. For free.

"People are kind of amazed. They say, 'Why would you do something like this?' " said Smith, 58, who has been an auxiliary officer for four years. "It's my way of giving it back."

He works about 100 hours a month.

"It's like a part-time job," said Smith, who also lives in Fairfax. "Only no pay."

Fairfax and other Northern Virginia police departments have a little-publicized group of volunteer officers, many of whom have no prior law enforcement experience. They patrol parks, provide security at fairs and events, work drunk-driving checkpoints and handle minor car accident reports.

As auxiliary officers, they are trained, sworn members of the department. But they do not carry guns or get paid.

Fairfax has 123 auxiliary officers, the largest group in the region. Arlington County has 17, and the department recently put out a call for more, hoping to get as many as 25 recruits.

Prince William County has six. The Loudoun County sheriff's office has 20 and wants to bring on another 20.

Alexandria has no auxiliary officers, but 30 volunteers help with office and administrative work.

Many of the auxiliary officers have full-time jobs and volunteer for the police department on nights and weekends. They are lawyers, computer programmers, administrative assistants, sales representatives and, in many cases, federal employees, said 2nd Lt. Karen Bonz, who is in charge of Fairfax's auxiliary officers.

In Fairfax, which started its auxiliary program in 1983, offix cers go through 17 weeks of training. After graduation, each officer is required to work at least 24 hours a month, Bonz said.

"Most of the time, they help with events out in community. They go out and do traffic control or crime prevention presentations," she said. "It frees up the paid officers to handle more urgent cases out there."

Budget cuts have put training on hold, Bonz said. It is unclear when it will resume, but she added, "they are not doing away with it."

Auxiliary officers in Prince William train with the Fairfax officers, officials said. In Loudoun, the officers go through the citizens police academy.

In Fairfax, Smith said he enjoys the work and plans to continue "until I physically can't anymore."

The job has been known to cause domestic tension.

"At times, it might make my wife a little nervous," Smith said. "But she's become accustomed to it."

Arlington started its auxiliary program in 1942, when the volunteers would fill in for officers who went to war, said Heather Hurlock, who runs the program.

Now the officers perform such tasks as responding to shoplifting calls at the Pentagon City mall.

Arlington's program is not as formalized as Fairfax's; auxiliary recruits are trained one-on-one with veteran officers rather than in an academy. And the department uses it as a way to recruit potential paid officers.

"A lot of times, you have people who are sick of what they're doing," Hurlock said. "They are holding down their job and taking a look at being a police officer."

Hurlock's story is different.

She retired in 1995 after 23 years with the department, and she has been volunteering since.

"I've worked hard all my life, and it's just a pattern," said Hurlock, a crime prevention specialist. "I enjoy it immensely."

Tagged: Loudoun Sheriff's Office, police

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