Volunteering to serve

Abstract

Volunteers within the police service are an understudied but invaluable area of policing, both in the UK and the USA. Although across England and Wales there are standardised policies governing the recruitment, training and deployment of volunteer police officers, across the United States there is no national standard for their use. As a result, research comparing and contrasting across these national boundaries is of value. This current study examines similarities and differences of two policing agencies, Cleveland Police in the North East of England, and the Orange County Sheriff's Office (OCSO) in Florida, USA. Results show that while the agencies have similarities in employment status, gender and experience as a volunteer, OCSO volunteer deputies were older than their Cleveland counterparts, and were much more inclined to participate in volunteer policing because of their past experience as full-time regular police officers.

Special beginnings: An explorative study of the early career experiences of volunteer special constables

“…There is a small but growing body of research internationally into the experiences of volunteer police (Alexander, 2000; Britton, 2017; Britton et al, 2018b; Bullock and Leeney, 2016; Callender, Cahalin and Britton, 2018; Callender, Cahalin and Cole, 2018; Dickson, 2021; Gaston and Alexander, 2001; Hieke, 2015; NPIA, 2010; Pepper, 2014; Pepper and Wolf, 2015; Prins, 2018; van Steden and Mehlbaum, 2019; Whittle, 2014; Wolf et al, 2015, 2016). Of the studies which have undertaken interviews or direct observation engaging Special Constables in England and Wales, most such studies are now somewhat dated, including Gill (1986), Leon (1991), Mirrlees-Black and Byron (1994) and Hedges (2000), or have been small in scale (cf.…”

Comparing volunteer policing in Malaysia, England and Wales and the United States of America: cross-national findings

“…Comparative studies of law enforcement are recognized as beneficial in the general context of informing, challenging and innovating law enforcement policy and practice (Bayley, 1985;Mawby, 1999;Sergi, 2017;van Stokkom and Terpstra, 2018;Wang and Zhao, 2016). The value of comparative study has been specifically recognized in volunteer law enforcement research where numerous calls for more such studies have been made in that they would be beneficial for the development of policy and practice (Albrecht, 2017a;Britton et al, 2018b;Bullock, 2018;Greenberg, 2014;Pepper and Wolf, 2015;Wolf and Borland-Jones, 2018;Wolf et al, 2016b).…”

“…Within this small but developing field of research, few studies of volunteer policing have crossed international borders. Previous international studies (such as Albrecht, 2017b;Britton et al, 2018b;Bullock, 2018;Mayorov and Wolf, 2016;Pepper and Wolf, 2015;van Steden and Mahlbaum, 2019;Wolf et al, 2016b;Wolf and Jones, 2018) have provided a body of literature which researchers, practitioners, administrators and policymakers could benefit from. However, this body of work has focused exclusively in Western cultures, and especially on USA-UK comparative work, and were undertaken mostly as small case studies rather than national-level comparisons.…”

“Proud to be a Special”: a qualitative study exploring the experiences of Special Constables in the UK

“…Research regarding volunteer police has been primarily focussed on Britain and North America (see Dobrin and Wolf, 2016;Gaines and Kappeler, 2011;Pepper and Wolf, 2015;Wolf et al, 2017) with little attention to developments outside of these locations ( for an exception see Van Steden and Mehlbaum, 2018). In many countries volunteers are recruited to assist RPOs in conducting patrols, investigations, administrative duties, traffic and community events.…”

“…Research into SCs is both limited regarding the perspectives of the SCs, or their perceptions of their role (Whittle, 2014). To encourage recruitment, further engagement and retention are essential as volunteers within the Police Force play a crucial supportive role within the Criminal Justice System (Pepper and Wolf, 2015). As the volunteering role of the SC is highly specific and complex, the flexibility of a qualitative approach, utilising semi-structured interviews and then conducting a thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2013;Braun et al, 2012) was considered the most appropriate approach for this study.…”