Reserve Sheriff

[jerhyn]

I am considering becoming a reserve sheriff. Anyone out there that is doing this now or others that could tell me more about it?

[benjamin101677]

I was a reserve deputy sheriff in a 85 deputy sheriff's department for several years. This can be a really great and fun thing to do. I think the best days in law enforcement for me where spent being a reserve.

After graduating from a police academy I was young 20 years old and became a reserve. Had to go through the same process that a regular deputy sheriff went through, background, medical, etc. After that if your pass your sworn in as a reserve. Unlike regular officers reserves only have peace officer powers while on duty. When off duty your back to civilian stuff.

My agency required the reserves to work 10 hours of volunteer shifts per month usually they want 2 shifts of 5 hours plus attending a reserve meeting. Primarily with my agency we were the second man in the car, that assisted the deputy we were with on his normal calls. Since we were a double unit we got to work the faster paced beats and were sent on the hot calls for service. Reserves go through the same field training program that a full time officer goes through just at a slower rate based on how often you work. I was able to drive 95% of the time, respond code 3 to calls, drove in a few pursuits, etc.

For anybody that wants to be a law enforcement officer and either doesn't have the time, have too good of a job to give it up to go be a full time police officer, maybe getting into law enforcement young, or just a willingness to give back being a reserve is a good opportunity. I know several reserves that have 25 years in at the local sheriff's department, when they come in to work they are given the keys to a patrol unit and can handle a beat or rove around the county.

Any questions ask away I will see if I know the answer,

[jerhyn]

I don't have time to be a full time Sheriff and it's also something I want to do on the side if my day job.

Bummer about losing peace keeping powers off duty.

Their site made it sound like you did special events and not normal work, so you get to do both then? Probably based on the need of the county.

I will need to do more research on the skill training. I wonder if the Police Academy can be done part time.

I probably should be asking the county these questions, but wanted to get a good idea before going in to talk.

[benjamin101677]

When I was a reserve deputy sheriff we served basically at the will of the sheriff. We were associate members of the departments PORAC team for legal defense, when something came up. I.E. I was accused of excessive force I had a lawyer for free during the internal affairs investigation made sure my rights were protected, then followed up with department to make sure that the investigation was done correctly as he even found witness to place my story up

When I was with the sheriff's department reserve unit we were only paid for special events, such as county fair, when wildfires broke out or the decision of the sergeant if something was needed. Also extra help during summer on lake patrols, and in the courtrooms during high profile trials. Most reserves only make a few hundred dollars of extra money per year.

Off duty powers, even full time are not that awesome to have as most officers don't get involved in much off duty other than watching the incident and reporting it. A lot of counties will give you a CCW permit or reduced cost as part of being a reserve.

I am not sure about the county your applying or looking at, but the main purpose for reserves and a lot of police department and sheriff's departments have them is to double a unit up. Most reserves come out on the weekends when they were off and the evening shifts, etc. So instead of running maybe 5 single man units, the department I was with and the department around here would run maybe 2 to 3 double up units with reserves and only 2 or 3 solo units. The doubled up units went to a lot more of the in process calls and overall that is where the fun is at.

Police academy you need to find out for the agency, some agencies such as Clovis Police Department in the valley used to teach their own police academies for reserves with a academy more structured to what they would be doing.

Most agencies have a reserve coordinator that you could probarly email or call with questions. Depending on the agency your looking at you may also wanna do a ride a long.

I am going to get hammer for this comment, but another thought in general sheriff's department are sometimes slower paced than police departments. So if your looking for excitement a couple shifts a month a police department may be the place to look also.

[jerhyn]

To be honest I am not looking for a lot of excitement. Trouble does a good enough job finding me, that I don't need to go looking for it

[micro911]

To become a reserve deputy sheriff, you will have to attend the academy on the weekends and one night a week. I think it will last a year unless they changed the program. If you can sacrifice the weekends for a year, it is worthwhile cause. I loved to work with reserved. I used to work a one man patrol unit, but having a partner was a good thing.

[Tallship]

First of all, you can't become a reserve sheriff. There is only one Sheriff, and he is elected. You can however, become a reserve deputy. Need to get the nomenclature correct.

[jerhyn]

Ha, you are right, reserve deputy.

[1911_sfca]

Yes, I have been a reserve Police Officer for the last 6.5 years. Being a reserve Deputy is great as well; I have a lot of friends who are reserve deputies at various SOs. It really depends on the department and what they will let you do. If you need more info about the program, check out the POST web site and/or CRPOA web site.

Personally, I have a great job and didn't want to give up my career, but did want to serve the community so I consider it my community service. A couple years ago I went back and did the Level I academy, so now I'm a designated level I reserve (24x7 peace officer powers). Though the powers of arrest for private citizens are so close to peace officer, there's not a huge difference.

My department gave me a CCW pretty early on but now don't need it. LEOSA has changed the landscape there, though there's still a fair bit of controversy regarding LEOSA and how it applies to reserves (and their departments' policies). For more info on that, go look at the long CRPOA memo on the topic.

Not sure where you're located, but if it's in the bay area, you're going to have a challenge just finding a modular academy to get trained up to Level II, and much moreso Level I. There just aren't academies going on, and South Bay has canceled / suspended everything except their full-time academies. So assuming you can't go 6 months full time, it's gonna be an issue.