A police volunteer walking through Covington neighborhoods checking on homes while residents are on vacation may seem like a small effort but it could have a larger ripple effect on patrol officers and the community.

Covington Police Chief Kevin Klason explained the program, which is a pilot project that began in the fall. Over the years, Klason said, residents have inquired about volunteering with the department because they wanted to help out. Because it’s a small operation it wasn’t something which could be offered nor could a volunteer program be developed quickly or easily.

A member of the City Council is friends with a volunteer with the Kent Police Department, Klason said, so they met to learn more about how that works. That led to the decision to start a pilot program in which volunteers would have limited responsibilities then see how well it worked. There are eight or nine volunteers now.

“We’re still in the pilot phase and will be for a while because I don’t have a staff that can oversee much of it,” Klason said. “One of the patrol officers has taken over this as a project he oversees. Right now what we’re having them do is vacation house checks, walking through all of our parks looking for damages, vandalism and any other problems they might see, and talking to anyone they might see.”

Police volunteers wear a bright yellow safety vest with the city’s logo on the front and the words City of Covington Volunteer stenciled in large letters on the back. They also are issued an ID badge so when they chat with people while out in neighborhoods or parks, residents can confirm they are affiliated with the city which alleviates concerns, Klason explained.

Volunteers participate in training sessions so they understand what to report to police, what to do if they see anything suspicious, when to call 911 on a city-issued cell phone, and how to report identifying details of suspects or cars, among other things. And they are, for their own safety, required to work in pairs.

“They’re eyes and ears only,” Klason said. “They can follow their instincts, if something doesn’t feel right (and call it in). And we’ve given them some instruction on observation.”

Having volunteers allows Covington police to respond to requests from residents more often and do more than reactive patrol.

“What it’s going to, as we get into the better weather and summer months and extended days, we will see more and more vacation check requests,” Klason said. “We make it very clear to the citizens that those are done as we have time to do it, but now we have volunteers, we’ll be able to do it on a bit of a more regular basis but there’s still no guarantee.”

And something as simple as vacation house checks can have a positive ripple effect that goes well beyond that one service.

“Hopefully this will allow more coverage or more attention to these house checks to be able to do them more frequently as well as alleviate the patrol officers of this responsibility,” Klason said. “The whole goal of the program is to see what tasks we can find to get the face of the city out there because that alone, that visible presence has a way of helping to deter crime, alleviate some of the tasks for the police officers and be eyes and ears for the police officers.”

Beyond that, Klason said, the hope is to expand the program during the next year or two as well as the responsibilities the volunteers have at this time. He would like to bring them in to to help during some of the summer events such as the Covington Days festival parade, for example.

“One of the things we are looking into doing, but we’re not ready to implement yet, is having them patrolling the business districts,” Klason said. “Having a more visible presence in the business districts, walking through the areas, noting any issues, stopping into the businesses and saying hi, or if they see someone using handicapping parking they can call our officers.”

That visibility during vacation checks, in neighborhood parks and possibly around businesses in the downtown core in the future, could deter all manner of crimes of opportunity such as break-ins, vandalism, tagging, and car prowls among others. Doing so, Klason said, in turn frees up officers.

For now, the pilot project with the current volunteers will do, at least until more resources can be found to expand the program.

Still, a small effort by a handful of volunteers in bright green city-issued vests could have quite an effect on the city.

“That’s the exact desire, by deterring crime, it frees our patrol officers to use their discretionary time to be more proactive and working on or following up on investigations and solving crimes,” Klason said.