Vancouver Police Dept. hosts “graduation” for NOW volunteers
Posted October 31, 2012
NOW volunteers are on a roll, keeping our neighborhoods safe.
Yesterday evening at 6:30 p.m. in the West Precinct offices, the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) held a “graduation” ceremony for 21 citizen volunteers who have completed seven weeks of specialized training to become Neighbors On Watch (NOW) volunteers. The NOW program, developed by the VPD, is a vital component to community policing. This group of graduates represents the tenth team of NOW volunteers to deploy for the VPD. All told, there are 105 trained NOW volunteers in the city of Vancouver. Three of yesterday’s “graduates” will help the Clark County Sheriff’s Office continue its own version of the NOW program.
NOW is a high-visibility, non-confrontational crime prevention and detection program. In order to graduate, volunteers successfully completed training in the following areas: observation skills, police radio communication and etiquette, patrol procedures and rules of conduct, personal safety, crime prevention and detection, incident reporting and information gathering, First Aid and CPR.
For more information about NOW, visit www.vanpolice.org, click on “Get Involved,” and select Neighbors On Watch, or contact volunteer coordinator Kelly Cheney at 360-487-7467.