Approximately 15 years ago, on March 25, 1992, the Community Service Volunteer Program, operating out of the Sebastian Police Department, was approved unanimously by the Sebastian City Council. The program started with three volunteers and has grown to 22 very active members in 2008.

The Community Service Volunteer Program has been an extremely important and valuable asset to the Sebastian Police Department and the residents of this community. The services provided are performed by citizens without compensation. It is an excellent opportunity and mechanism for furthering community involvement with the police operations.

Every morning a group of men and women volunteers take on the time consuming duties that would have been performed by sworn officers. These duties include residential and commercial security checks, courier and mail runs, funeral escorts, parking enforcement, code enforcement, and traffic control for special events and emergencies. The duties performed by the citizen volunteers allow the Police Officers to concentrate on priority calls necessary to keep the residents of Sebastian safe. The Volunteers are on call 24 hours a day and may also be called upon to participate in special cases such as missing persons searches, and accidents with road blocks.

The Sebastian Police Department has made training a top priority for the participating volunteers. A new volunteer will go through an orientation and training phase to learn radio protocol, codes, and signals. They attend training classes in traffic control, parking enforcement, code enforcement and some are trained as school crossing guards. They work primarily between the hours of 6:00 AM and 12:00 PM. Their membership is open to those who can pass a thorough background investigation and a physical exam. Current membership is made up of individuals from a diversified job market including white and blue collar workers, retired military personnel, and other professionals. While most of the members are retirees, membership is not limited to only retired people.

The volunteers utilize patrol vehicles equipped with amber warning lights, police radios, flashlights, traffic vests, rain coats, first aid kits, and fire extinguishers. The volunteers proudly wear a uniform of a light blue shirt with the Sebastian Police Department Volunteer logo, and navy pants.

The volunteers are citizens on patrol but do not carry weapons. The volunteers will call the dispatcher and request an officer to respond to their location if they observe suspicious activity or a suspicious person. Volunteers are very busy during the vacation season, checking on numerous homes while on patrol. They look for any suspicious activity, suspicious vehicles, broken windows, torn screens or unlocked doors. They perform their tasks with great pride and supply the homeowner; upon their return, with an individualized report of daily observations of their property.

The Sebastian Police Department is extremely proud of their Community Service Volunteers.