Thursday, March 28, 2024

Connect with us:

LPD exploring opportunities for volunteer help

Lt. Scott Bailey believes police and community can work together. (Photo: Melanie Jongsma)
by Melanie Jongsma

LANSING, Ill. (March 24, 2019) – Several graduates from the 2019 Citizens Police Academy expressed a new appreciation for the amount and variety of work Lansing police officers do. Responding to 911 calls, patrolling neighborhoods, visiting schools and businesses, writing reports, researching grants, providing safety training—all of this is police work that requires officer hours.

Lt. Scott Bailey, who has taught the class for the past two years, understands that the workload can sometimes affect police relationships with the community, because it means that police are not always able to be as responsive or available as they want to be. One solution Bailey and the department are exploring is to involve local volunteers to help with certain responsibilities.

Volunteering at community events

For example, the Lansing Area Chamber’s Good Neighbor Day Parade is a community event that typically involves a lot of officers in redirecting traffic or answering questions from pedestrians. Those are responsibilities that could possibly be handled by trained civilians. To gauge interest, Bailey sent an email to graduates from the 2018 and 2019 Citizens Police Academies, since they have already received some training and could easily qualify for volunteer positions at the parade and other community events.

To learn more about volunteer opportunities with the Lansing Police Department, contact Lt. Scott Bailey:

Volunteering at disaster sites

For people interested in disaster-related volunteer opportunities, the Lansing Police Department is now partnering with the Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services Center, and volunteers are needed for those situations. The Salvation Army provides emergency assistance to help meet survivors’ most urgent needs for food, clothing, shelter, and medical services. They also assist emergency personnel with equipment and food. Bailey is hoping that LPD’s partnership with the Salvation Army will encourage Lansing residents to get involved as well. For those interested in learning more about the training to become a volunteer in our community, visit the Salvation Army website:

Questions that are not answered on the website may be answered by Volunteer Coordinator Matthew Coatar:

Melanie Jongsma
Melanie Jongsma
Melanie Jongsma grew up in Lansing, Illinois, and believes The Lansing Journal has an important role to play in building community through trustworthy information.

1 COMMENT

  1. As a past president of the Lansing Jaycees I remember the LPD and the Park dist., asked us to provide every park in Lansing with 2 Jaycees to patrol near a park on Halloween to hopefully avoid some vandalism just by someone standing there, Lan Oak always needed 4 or 5.
    It is a shame that the younger generation is no longer interested in joining a service org. to support the town I still call home after moving to Easton Md in 1996!
    The Village of Lansing was built by the these groups
    Please support the town I still love. Volunteer, join a service to community organization! The Lions, restart the Rotary, the Jaycees, Kiwanis. Join Mike Fish at The Copper Muggers!
    Get involved!
    As my HS Band leader always said, when looking at me, a group is only as good as it’s weakest member.! So it is with a town!
    I am retired now but I still belong to the Elks Lodge here.

Comments are closed.