Hemet Police Welcomes New Volunteers
Class # 42 Graduates 18 New Volunteers
The Hemet Police Department is proud to announce the graduation of its 42nd Basic Volunteer Academy. On November 12th, eighteen (18) Hemet area residents completed their initial six weeks of training.
From here, they will be assigned to veteran volunteers for further training and assignment.
Graduating with the group were three Hemet Police Department College Interns; Caitlyn Coleman, Tyler Crouch, and Silvia Iniguez. The three are students at Mt. San Jacinto College and are completing an internship at Hemet Police Department for college credits and work-study experience.
The program was started in 1993 under then-police Chief Milton ‘Lee’ Evanson and Sergeant Charles Steadman (ret).
Hemet City Councilwoman Linda Krupa attended the event and praised HPD Volunteers for dedicating over 25,000 hours to the community so far in 2014.
The class was sworn-in by Deputy Chief of Police Rob Webb in front of approximately 75 family members, friends, and veteran volunteers at the Hemet Valley Mall in Hemet; where all of this initial training took place. A partnership was formed with the mall who donated a large suite for the training and graduation. The Hemet Valley Mall, which houses retail stores such as Bath & Body Works, Hobby Lobby, Sears, and JC Penney, also provides a Hemet Police sub-station where citizens can file reports, turn in found property, register Special Needs family members, and much more.
Ten members of Class #41 were also presented with white HPD Volunteer uniforms following their first six months of volunteer service.
On any given day or night, Hemet Police Volunteers can be seen assisting citizens at Hemet PD’s four stations, speaking to civic groups, patrolling neighborhoods, shopping centers & parks, starting Neighborhood Watch programs, performing traffic control at collisions and during natural disasters, babysitting lost children, helping Alzheimers patients, and they have become staples at such events as The Ramona Play, Hemet’s Annual Christmas Parade, Harvest Festival, Veterans Day Celebration, and more.