A comparative case study of Reserve Deputies in a Florida sheriff’s office and Special Constables in an English police force
| Author | Matthew Callender,Iain Britton,Ross Wolf |
| Published date | 01 December 2018 |
| Date | 01 December 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1461355718816710 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
A comparative case study of Reserve
Deputies in a Florida sheriff’s office
and Special Constables in an English
police force
Iain Britton
(Institute for Public Safety, Crime and Justice,) University of Northampton, UK
Ross Wolf
University of Central Florida, USA
Matthew Callender
(Institute for Public Safety, Crime and Justice,) University of Northampton, UK
Abstract
Volunteers operating as ‘sworn’ police personnel with full policing powers are a common feature of policing organizations
in many countries, including Special Constables in the UK and Reserve and Auxiliary police officers and deputy sheriffs in
many law enforcement agencies in the USA. There has been only limited research into the experience of serving as a
volunteer in such policing roles in either the US or UK settings, together with very little comparative research into
volunteer officer exper ience across different in ternational settings . This article presents a sm all-scale, comparativ e
qualitative case study based upon interviews with volunteers from a Reserve Unit in a sheriff’s office in Florida and
with volunteer Special Constables from an English police force, exploring their perspectives and experiences of
volunteering in their respective policing organizations. The research identifies key differences between the settings in
respect of past experience and volunteer pathways, models of training and confidence of operational capability,
development and management of roles, the opportunities to develop specialization for volunteers, and leadership. The
article points to the value of comparative research in police voluntarism and calls for more research in this area.
Keywords
Police, volunteers, Special Constable, reserve, auxiliary, citizens in policing
Submitted 08 Feb 2018, accepted 01 Nov 2018
Introduction
One key element of a shifting policing landscape is a trend
towards a growing plurality of policing provision (Bullock,
2014; Crawford, 2008; Lister, 2006); a ‘policing family’
delivering policing in communities that is considerably
broader than regular police officers (Regulars). Within this
‘pluralised, fragmented and differentiated patchwork’
(Crawford, 2008: 147) of actors increasingly involved in
policing delivery, there is an array of voluntary roles, which
can be broadly conceptualized as ‘volunteers in policing’ or
as ‘citizens in policing’. Albrecht (2017: xiii) identifies that
there are ‘a wide array of examples from all over the globe’
of volunteers serving in policing roles, including in sizeable
numbers in both the USA and the UK. The value of police
volunteers has increasingly been recognized as ‘a link
Corresponding author:
Iain Britton, University of Northampton, Park Campus, Boughton Green
Road, Northampton, NN2 7AL, UK.
Email: iain.britton@ipscj.org
International Journalof
Police Science & Management
2018, Vol. 20(4) 259–271
ªThe Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1461355718816710
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