A comparative case study of Reserve Deputies in a Florida sheriff’s office and Special Constables in an English police force

Abstract

Volunteers operating as ‘sworn’ police personnel with full policing powers are a common feature of policing organizations in many countries, including Special Constables in the UK and Reserve and Auxiliary police officers and deputy sheriffs in many law enforcement agencies in the USA. There has been only limited research into the experience of serving as a volunteer in such policing roles in either the US or UK settings, together with very little comparative research into volunteer officer experience across different international settings. This article presents a small-scale, comparative qualitative case study based upon interviews with volunteers from a Reserve Unit in a sheriff’s office in Florida and with volunteer Special Constables from an English police force, exploring their perspectives and experiences of volunteering in their respective policing organizations. The research identifies key differences between the settings in respect of past experience and volunteer pathways, models of training and confidence of operational capability, development and management of roles, the opportunities to develop specialization for volunteers, and leadership. The article points to the value of comparative research in police voluntarism and calls for more research in this area.

Presenting a uniformed self: Symbols of safety in police auxiliary members' perceptions

“…One such characteristic is the police powers that are provided to these volunteers to utilize throughout their duties. For example, SCs in the United Kingdom (Britton et al, 2018;Bullock and Leeney, 2016;Callender et al, 2019;Wolf et al, 2017), auxiliaries/reservists in select jurisdictions in the United States (Dobrin, 2017;Wolf et al, 2015Wolf et al, , 2017, as well as volunteers in the Netherlands (van Steden and Mehlbaum, 2019) possess identical powers to their full-time counterparts. By contrast, some may possess limited powers, such as PCSOs in the United Kingdom (Cooke, 2005;Millie, 2018;Rowland and Coupe, 2014), whereas others may have no powers at all (Callender et al, 2019;Cherney and Chui, 2010;Gravelle and Rogers, 2010;Millie, 2018).…”

“…Police volunteers are generally welcomed and valued within policing, particularly as part of agencies' community policing philosophies (Phillips, 2013;Phillips and Terrell-Orr, 2013;Ren et al, 2006). To date, police volunteers have been deployed in many countries around the world, such as Australia (Cherney and Chui, 2010), Malaysia (Cheah et al, 2018), the Netherlands (van Steden and Mehlbaum, 2019), South Africa (Hirtenfelder, 2016), Sweden (Uhnoo and Löfstrand, 2018), Hungary (Kardos and Szoke, 2016), the United Kingdom (Britton et al, 2018;Bullock and Leeney, 2016;Chandan and Meakin, 2016;Cooke, 2005;Gravelle and Rogers, 2010;Pepper and Wolf, 2015;Rowland and Coupe, 2014;Wolf et al, 2017) and the United States (Britton et al, 2018;Dobrin, 2017;Pepper and Wolf, 2015;Wolf et al, 2017). Police volunteers are also prominent in Canadian policing, but little is known about their experiences.…”

Auxiliary Police Volunteer Experiences and Motivations to Volunteer in Canada

“…Overall, much of the success of any auxiliary policing program hinges on the management of the program. Most importantly, the program requires a coherent overall structure, a clear rank structure, and dedicated leadership (Britton et al, 2018;Bullock & Leeney, 2016;Callender et al, 2019). Thus, focused attention on these issues is important because recruiting and retaining volunteer police is not completely without financial cost.…”

Leadership, Volunteering and the Special Constabulary

“…For the special constable, a fundamental desire to 'do' policing is often offset against the need to partake in work that is meaningful and adds value to the organisation, particularly as they give their time for free with no expectation of monetary renumeration. One way to achieve this is through the incorporation of a rank structure within the special constabulary given rank offers a host of positive benefits including enhancing feelings of fulfilment and influencing decisions to continue in the role (Britton, Wolf and Callender, 2018), stimulating motivation and improving retention, promoting the effectiveness of specials, and fostering a sense of belonging (Ramshaw and Cosgrove, 2019). Setting aside potential value and attraction of rank as a mechanism to strengthen commitment and retention, with rank comes leadership roles and responsibilities.…”

“…As an emerging field of interest in England and Wales scholarly work on special constable volunteers who undertake police officer roles is gathering pace. Academic literature and research is capturing a broad range of special constable experiences including the extent to which they offer value for money (Whittle, 2014 and; their occupational experiences (Britton, Callender, and Cole, 2016;IPSCJ, 2014); diversity amongst their ranks (Bullock, 2014); deployment and management (Bullock and Leeney, 2016;Gaston and Alexander, 2001); empowering and encouraging community engagement in policing (Calles, 2018); comparisons with police reservists in the USA (Britton, Wolf and Callender, 2018;Wolf and Jones, 2018; and motivation to volunteer (Hieke, 2018a, Ramshaw andCosgrove, 2019). While the special constable holds a unique place in the policing landscape across England and Wales, what appears as an anomaly in the present policing schema re-shaped by reform, modernisation, and professionalisation (Holdaway, 2017), is a notable absence of scholarly work around leadership.…”