How Bedford Police Use Public Service Officers To Be More Efficient

In Bedford, people expect police officers to be there for them.

"I shop over here a lot and my daughter lives over here, and I want her to be protected,” shopper Billie Bradford said. “When she calls 911 I want them to be there no matter what she needs."

To make sure officers can handle the big calls, Bedford police have public service officers to help.

"It's just kind of a force multiplier,” Bedford Police Chief Jeff Williams said. “It puts somebody out there to assist them. So, they'll help take some of those minor calls."

Williams says they are citizen officers in specially marked vehicles, but they don't wear a badge or have arresting powers.

Their job is to help officers by taking city ordinance violations, like parking enforcement, illegally parked vehicles, abandoned vehicles and other minor calls.

Public service officers don't go through police academy, but they are trained for the services they provide.

"We teach them the different laws,” Williams said. “We teach them some safety issues. How to direct traffic so we do it in house class and then they have a field training program where we stick them in a car with an officer and let them make some calls, so they know how to interact with citizens."

The chief says this is about making the department more efficient.

"I think we are relatively quiet here, but things do happen,” Bedford resident Celeste Jones said. “They can take care of the major things and let us take care of the small things. That will take that off their plate. It's kind of like me as an agent I hire an assistant. There's a lot of things I don't want to mess with."