Some 5,000 cops help patrol the streets across Virginia and don't take a dime for it. Reserve officers volunteer with departments throughout our viewing area, but a legal ruling from the state has put many of them out of service.
Full-time police officers aren't sworn in until they spend 16 weeks at the academy. Then it is another 100 hours of field training. But should volunteers meet that same standard? A state agency says yes - and that decision has forced many officers off the street.
Waynesboro police have a reserve unit of 14 officers and Staunton has another nine volunteers. All of them have been, in effect, suspended from duty, since a December ruling from the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS).
Some 5,000 auxiliary officers serve departments across Virginia. Last month the DCJS clarified a decades-old state law, by ruling that those reserves must have the same level of training as paid officers.
Waynesboro Reserves Chief Reo Hatfield disagrees stating, "I think it's a disgrace. They gave up family, time... They gave up work time and everything else for the citizens. And we need the citizens to back this."
The Albemarle County Sheriff's Office has over 50 volunteers - the state's largest reserve unit. Sheriff Chip Harding says he was never informed of the DCJS ruling, but will investigate its potential impact.
Several departments tell us reserves are already highly trained. In Staunton, for example, it's 200 hours that include firearms and use of force. Police hope the attorney general or state lawmakers step in, and allow their volunteers to go back in service.
