The Gwinnett County Police Department and Gwinnett Parks and Recreation are working together on a new program, Volunteer Citizens on Patrol (VCOP).
The VCOP program utilizes police volunteers to patrol the parks in the county and will be the first of its kind for the Gwinnett County Police Department.
"Their primary goal and objective is to observe activity within our parks, identify and report violations of law and suspicious activity to our 911 center," said Cpl. Deon Washington. "This will create a response by uniform patrol officers."
Cpl. Washington said the VCOP program volunteers will act as observers in an effort to identify and report violations, as well as enhance the general welfare of everyone using the county parks.
Volunteers have completed both general training and training specifically for the VCOP program.
"The volunteers that were chosen for this program have actually completed the Gwinnett County Police Department's Citizen's Police Academy, which gives them extensive hands-on insight into how the Gwinnett County Police Department functions and some of our various operations that we perform," said Washington.
Volunteers have a uniform too. Washington says if you're in a park and see a yellow VCOP t-shirt to stop and say hello.
The program started Monday.
