The V.I.P.S. program is a volunteer organization committed to assisting the Novato Police Department in its goal of enhancing community safety, protecting life and property, and reducing crime and the fear of crime. The Police Department is committed to enhancing community relations by giving the public the opportunity to become more familiar with policing services as well as providing a better understanding of the inner workings of the department. Since the V.I.P.S. inception in 2004, they have provided more than 1000 hours of volunteer time to the Police Department and their community.
Each year, the Novato Police Department experiences an increase in requests for services from our citizens. Many of the requests deal with issues that are non-criminal in nature, or involve miscellaneous service. The Department’s ability to respond to these requests, using sworn officers as the responders is limited. Sworn officers are primarily directed toward emergency response, investigation of crimes, and calls for services that require powers of arrest. As a result, the need for volunteers continues to grow so that we may free the sworn officer for higher priority tasks while attempting to provide additional community services.
It is anticipated that Volunteers will be needed to establish a Neighborhood Patrol/Vacation House Check Program, to get involved with the Neighborhood Watch Program, and to assist with the formation of Disaster Response Program for the City of Novato as well as assisting with a variety of responsibilities at the police station.
The purpose of the Neighborhood Patrol Program will be to augment and assist the patrol division in a variety of assignments. The volunteers do not perform law enforcement duties, but rather provide services to the community not otherwise offered by a sworn officer due to time and resource limitations.
- Some of the duties of the V.I.P.S. personnel include;
- Public assistance
- Data entry/extraction for statistical purposes
- Administrative tasks related to parking enforcement
- Processing subpoenas
- Citation transmittal to traffic court
- General clerical duties, filing, shredding, etc.
- Microfilming project
- Disaster committee—Training and Preparation
- Crime prevention
- Telephone surveys
- Participation in Special Events
If you are interested in becoming a Volunteer please contact the Novato Police Department at 415-897-4361