White House officials released details, earlier this month, on the volunteer program Citizen Corps, first proposed as part of the Administration’s USA Freedom Corps, launched in January. The announcement called on local officials to create Citizen Corps Councils to coordinate the citizen-based volunteer efforts in their communities and to link volunteers, where appropriate, to law enforcement agencies, hospitals, emergency fire and rescue agencies, and schools.
The Citizen Corps, according to officials, “will be a locally-driven initiative managed by the newly created Citizen Preparedness Councils (Councils), supported at the state level by Governors, and coordinated nationally by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).”
President George W. Bush, during a speech in Knoxville, Tenn. on April 8, announced that he has included $203 million in his budget to support Citizen Corps, $50 million of which would be immediately available through the FY02 emergency supplemental budget.
The Citizen Corps is composed of five programs, two of which are new initiatives:
• New to the Citizen Corps is the Medical Reserve Corps, which will be administered by HHS and launched this summer. Practicing and retired medical personnel will be trained and called upon to assist during large-scale emergencies, as well as to augment existing public health services throughout the year.
• Also new: Operation TIPS, or Terrorism Information and Prevention System. Operation TIPS will train workers in selected industries, such as trucking, rail and shipping, to spot and report suspicious activity possibly related to terrorism. They will act as extra eyes and ears for law enforcement. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) will launch pilot projects in 10 cities late this summer.
• The Neighborhood Watch Program, funded by the DOJ and administered by the National Sheriff’s Association, will expand to incorporate terrorism prevention and education. The goal is to double the number of groups participating by 2004.
• FEMA’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) now provides training in emergency preparedness to local trainers, who in turn train other citizens. Currently, there are 200,000 CERT-trained citizens. The Administration hopes to have 600,000 in place by 2004.
• Volunteers in Police Service, or VIPS, is administered by the DOJ program, and was just recently launched nationwide. VIPS provides training for volunteers to perform administrative and non-intervention policing activities, so law enforcement professionals can be freed up for front line duty. VIPS is similar to many county-initiated volunteer programs, which also train “civilians” to step into administrative police roles.
For more information on the Citizen Corps and its programs, please visit on the Web, www.citizencorps.gov/about.html. To download a Citizen Corps Guide for Local Officials, visit NACo’s Web site: www.naco.org/programs/homesecurity/resources.cfm.
