ABSTRACT
The International Association of Police Chiefs (IAPC) has listed more than 2,000 volunteer programs involving more than 200,000 citizens helping to augment police services (U.S. Department of Justice 2011). The existence of so many programs and participants is reminiscent of earlier times in U.S. history when citizen support and participation in community activities, such as the justice system, was viewed as a necessity in a democratic society. In those earlier times, it was commonplace for community residents to look after one another. Since the entry of the United States into World War II, there has been a resurgence of interest in civic participation. For example, many community residents throughout the United States are policing themselves through the establishment of “neighborhood watch” groups. They are selecting block captains, engaging in neighborhood surveillance, holding regularly scheduled safety meetings, and sometimes engaging in organized patrols. Local and national organizations concerned with public safety have benefitted from this renewed spirit of civic engagement. For example, at the national level, the all-volunteer Civil Air Patrol (CAP) has resources that are almost unparalleled by any other civilian search and rescue organization in the world today, including America’s largest privately owned fleet of single engine aircraft and the world’s largest privately owned shortwave radio network. Within six months of the Cadet CAP Program’s inception in 1942, more than 20,000 youth had joined across the country (Blascovich 2013). In more recent years, new groups known as Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteers have been recruited and trained at the local level. CERT teams support their local communities by assisting in emergency preparedness and response and by educating their communities about emergency preparedness. New York City (NYC) has more than 1,500 active CERT volunteers, and there are more than 3,500 CERT programs in the United States (NYC Press Release 2012).1
