Woodbury Police Reserves Program Highlighted at Council Meeting
The Woodbury City Council received a presentation about the Woodbury Police Reserves Program, which allows community volunteers to work alongside law enforcement officers on various duties.
Two reserve officers, including Javier who has served with the program for several years and another officer with nearly 15 years of experience, described their roles during the meeting. Reserve officers assist with non-emergency calls, patrol parks, transport individuals to jail and participate in community engagement activities. Both officers serve on the Bike Patrol Team, which involves biking through parks during summer months to interact with children and build positive community relationships.
The program requires volunteers to complete a comprehensive training process that includes job interviews, background checks and psychological evaluations. Accepted candidates attend a weekend academy covering protocols, defensive tactics and equipment use. New reserves also complete reality-based training focused on de-escalation techniques and proper procedures before beginning field training with experienced officers.
Reserve officers commit to working at least one shift per month on Friday or Saturday nights and attend monthly program meetings. They also assist with community events such as Woodbury Days. The program is open to anyone 18 years or older who demonstrates community-mindedness and appreciation for law enforcement.
According to the presentation, the program emphasizes safety and proper training to ensure reserves can effectively perform their duties while maintaining public confidence in their capabilities.
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This meeting features a presentation about the Woodbury Police Reserves Program, where volunteer community members work alongside law enforcement officers. Two long-time reserve officers discuss their experiences, training requirements, duties, and the community benefits of the program.
Source document
[0:01] [Music]
[0:04] i've always felt like I wanted to
[0:05] volunteer to help the community there's
[0:07] a lot going on in Woodbury reserving
[0:10] with the police department was a way for
[0:12] me to feel like I could add value and
[0:15] help the community so I've been doing it
[0:17] for a few years and I really enjoy it
[0:18] i've been with the program almost 15
[0:20] years and it actually goes back to a
[0:22] critical incident that happened in
[0:23] Woodbury and just through a strange set
[0:26] of circumstances I wasn't even aware
[0:27] that the program existed a sergeant
[0:29] approached me and talked to me about
[0:31] joining the program and I I took the
[0:33] opportunity and I haven't looked back
[0:35] since
[0:37] we work side by side with law
[0:39] enforcement officers we go out on shifts
[0:41] and we take non-emergency calls for
[0:43] service for example we help patrol parks
[0:47] we actually help transport people to
[0:50] jail it can range from a lot of things a
[0:52] lot of community engagement even both
[0:54] Javier and I are on the on the bike
[0:55] patrol team so we in addition to the
[0:58] usual reserve duties we also do a lot of
[1:00] community engagement so we're out biking
[1:02] in the parks in the summertime and you
[1:04] meet up with kids and hand out stickers
[1:06] and just you build good relationships in
[1:09] the community and and hopefully
[1:10] represent the department in a in a
[1:13] highly positive manner
we treat it like
[1:15] it's a job so you go through a process
[1:17] of job interview then you go through a
[1:19] background check you go through a
[1:20] psychological evaluation once people go
[1:23] through those processes and they make it
[1:25] through then we go into an academy for
[1:28] it's usually like a weekend where we
[1:30] give the basics of protocols defensive
[1:32] tactics the tools that we wear on our
[1:34] belt and then as part of that we also
[1:36] have what we call reality based training
[1:39] so we do a lot of training in terms of
[1:41] what we may find out there how to talk
[1:44] to people what are things that we should
[1:46] be doing not doing how to deescalate
[1:48] situations how to know how to call for
[1:50] help then the new reserve will go into
[1:53] what we call field training so they'll
[1:55] do a number of shifts with a field
[1:57] training officer for example until we
[1:59] feel like they are performing properly
[2:01] in all the different categories that we
[2:03] have safety is the most important thing
[2:05] because we are out in a police car we
[2:07] are out in uniform we are out dealing
[2:10] with sometimes people in unknown
[2:11] circumstances and the officers are
[2:14] confident in our training we're
[2:15] confident in our training and and it's
[2:18] one more thing for the community then to
[2:19] know that as they see us that we have
[2:22] the things the tools we need the
[2:24] training we need to be able to do the
[2:25] things that we have to do out in the
[2:26] field and it's you know really open to
[2:29] anyone who has an interest as 18 years
[2:31] of age and up it's kind of wide open for
[2:34] the type of people that we want we want
[2:36] people who are
[2:37] community-minded who have an
[2:39] appreciation for what law enforcement
[2:41] does in our communities and curious you
[2:44] know it's just what you want to be part
[2:46] of something you want to know what's
[2:48] going on you want to kind of be involved
[2:50] you want to build friendships lots of
[2:52] lots of different motivators so the
[2:53] commitment when you join the reserve
[2:55] program is to be able to do at least one
[2:57] shift a month friday or Saturday nights
[3:00] you'll pick one of those and do at least
[3:02] once a month and then we have a reserve
[3:04] meeting that we do we get everybody
[3:06] together once a month that is the
[3:08] minimum commitment that we ask people to
[3:10] be able to help us out and then
[3:12] obviously being able to help us out with
[3:14] things like Woodbury days and some other
[3:16] community events
people get out of the
[3:18] program what they put into it and you
[3:20] know we can put in many more hours if we
[3:22] want
[3:24] you wind up with a lot of pride in the
[3:26] people we get to work with and support
[3:29] the the law enforcement officers and you
[3:31] see the professionalism of our
[3:33] department and their ability to work in
[3:35] very difficult situations sometimes you
[3:38] just get a chance to to make some sort
[3:40] of a a difference hopefully in someone's
[3:42] someone's day sometimes it's a really
[3:44] bad day for them and you come home from
[3:47] an from a shift at what like sometimes
[3:49] 3:00 4 in the morning and you kind of
[3:51] sit back and go "Wow we we're part of
[3:53] something tonight
[3:55] [Music]
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