Volunteer Program

The Murrieta Police Department is actively recruiting volunteers who can commit to a minimum of 16 hours a month assisting in a variety of different duties within the police department. The Murrieta Police Department has 141 full and part-time employees, who do a phenomenal job fighting crime and keeping each of our community programs running smoothly. Our employees are supplemented with an active volunteer force of about 40 folks, many of whom have been members of the Police Volunteer Program for over 10 years.

Why Volunteers are Important

Our Police Volunteer Program is crucial to our success in maintaining services and community programs. Murrieta has the annual distinction of being the safest city in Riverside County and one of the safest in the state and nation. This would not be possible without our police volunteers. We firmly believe every volunteer actively contributes to this prestigious designation and is part of the overall collaborative team effort.

Volunteers can assist in several arenas which best suits their interests, time commitments and the organizational needs. Generally, volunteers are either assigned internally within the police station or out in the community. All volunteers begin their service with orientation at the front counter within our Records Bureau to understand the police department function, culture and how to assist the public.

How They Help

Some of our volunteers prefer volunteering within the police station. They assist the public at the front counter, answering the business phone line, filing paperwork, data entry, conducting background checks and other clerical duties. Almost every specialized unit within the department such as the Special Enforcement Team, Code Enforcement, Detectives, Traffic Bureau and our administrative staff utilize volunteers in key positions to help the sworn officers function more efficiently.

Field Volunteers

Those volunteers who have an interest in working in the field are assigned in uniform at community events such as the DARE Golf Tournament, city parades, the annual city Birthday Bash, and other civic events. Volunteers initially purchase their own uniforms. After one year or 192 hours of service, volunteers are reimbursed for the entire cost of the uniform.

All field volunteers are required to attend a department sponsored driver's certification program. Once the course is completed, field volunteers drive police department vehicles and conduct daily pro-active Community Patrols and School Patrols being the "eyes and ears" of our department. These patrols help our sworn officers in the field notifying them on the radio when suspicious activity or possible crimes are observed.

Field-trained volunteers also assist in maintaining crime scenes, traffic control, or aiding officers with scene control on major fatal accident investigations.

Other Duties

Volunteers are a valuable resource in the field searching for missing children, writing parking warnings for violations such as enforcement handicap parking, fire lane, and other parking violations. Other duties volunteers perform include vacation home checks, code enforcement and participating in Neighborhood Watch Programs. All volunteers receive training before being assigned to any of these positions.

Requirements

Minimum requirements include an interest in serving the Murrieta community, being at least 18 years old and the ability to commit to a minimum of 16 hours of service per month. Some of our volunteers work as many as 35 to 40 hours a month but only 16 hours a month is required to maintain active volunteer status. Volunteers are also required to complete an application packet, be available for a short interview and pass an internal background process.

Due to the amount of time it takes to complete a thorough background check on potential volunteers, we are unfortunately unable to accept active duty military and people in the application process with another law enforcement agency.

How to Apply

If this program sounds interesting to you, please email or call one of the volunteer coordinators. We look forward to hearing from you and thank you for your interest in serving our fine community.