LAPD News:

The Los Alamos Police Department (LAPD) is looking for citizens for a variety of tasks, as they seek to expand a successful existing volunteers program into new police administration areas.

The goal of the department is to call upon citizen volunteers to help with daily non-emergency response tasks in order to allow police officers more time in the field concentrating on police enforcement and pro-active community outreach programs or services.

LAPD is seeking volunteers to assist in three areas:

• Fingerprinting services;
• Data entry; and
• Food preparation in the detention center’s kitchen for three meals a day.

LAPD already uses a variety of volunteers, such as individuals who provide behavior-focused training or schooling for inmates wishing to complete their GED.

The three new administrative tasks being expanded for the volunteers program were functions previously filled by police officers or reserve officers when available; however, in anticipation of limited budgets, LAPD is considering other ways that volunteers may assist them on a more regularly scheduled and daily basis.

This is more efficient than training and using the services of inmates who may be eligible for work-program status, because most inmate incarcerations at the detention center are short-term.

The program will begin Monday, April 1. Those citizens wishing to apply as a volunteer at LAPD for any or all three of these areas are invited to attend an informational meeting 5:30-6:30 p.m. Monday, March 18 at the police department.

Individuals should plan to meet in the lobby of LAPD by 5:20 p.m., to be escorted to a conference room inside the police department.

Police Commander Randy Foster will provide an overview of the tasks, hours and type of volunteer work required, discuss any necessary background checks, pass out volunteer and confidentiality-of-information forms that will need to be completed for each volunteer, and finally, outline the food server certificate process (only for those wishing to volunteer in the detention center kitchen.)

Individuals who cannot attend the March 18 meeting but who would like to sign up to serve as a volunteer are asked to e-mail Foster with their letter of interest at randy.foster@lacnm.us.

While there is no established target for the number of volunteers that LAPD hopes to recruit over the next three weeks, Foster said that if this first expansion effort proves successful, LAPD will begin identifying other areas for volunteer administrative assistance and could expand the program again in the future.

Questions? Contact Commander Foster at 662-8233 or randy.foster@lacnm.us