In 1996, Kiwanis Kingston provided financial assistance to form the Kingston Police Community Volunteers. Initially starting with 25 members, the group now boasts over 50 full-time members. The mandate of the Volunteers is to provide the Kingston Police with an enhanced community involvement, as well as to provide a wide variety of duties as required, most importantly to be the eyes and ears of the community. With this direct involvement, the Kingston Police and the executive members have been able to mold the KPCV into an extremely important and functional tool for the Kingston community.

The constant presence of the KPCV in the community promotes goodwill between the community and its police service. In a number of patrols, volunteer members have located numerous stolen vehicles and property, assisted in accident scenes, conducted searches for missing persons, located intoxicated drivers, assisted in searching for evidence at crime scenes and prevented public access to criminal standoffs. In concert with the Kingston Police, the volunteers assisted in a recent break-and-enter project and have conducted numerous child identification clinics with our Digital Child Id system. In all these instances, by providing direct support to the uniformed officers, the volunteers have freed the officers to allow them to concentrate on their tasks.

When out on patrol, the volunteers’ vehicles are equipped with emergency kits, containing first aid kits, amber lights, traffic cones, traffic safety vests and biohazard containers. Each volunteer carries a Casio hand-held organizer, which contains a database of stolen autos that is updated weekly.