The Sheridan Police Department (SPD) swore in their first reserve police officer earlier this month after launching a reserve program earlier this year. The program allows citizens to serve as peace officers. They go through the same hiring process, training requirements, and background check process as full-time sworn officers.
“Most people would probably think it came up as a solution to manning or staffing shortages and it really wasn't,” said SPD Lt. Dan Keller. “We're really lucky here, our Chief [Travis] Koltiska was really community minded and pretty progressive and it's just part of an ongoing conversation we always have. And with any program or procedure we work on here, it always centers around a conversation of how does this help the community?”
The idea of a reserve officer program first came about in 2020 when one of the department’s senior officers attended a staff and command school. One of the school’s research projects was to develop a plan for policing, which led to a project on reserve officers.
“The discussion centered around the idea that it would bring a better community's perspective to our culture in the police department,” he said. “Also, reserve officers can be a unique bridge of communication to the community. A reserve officer who is also a school teacher or a pastor or realtor or retired individual, when they're spending time here, they bring a unique community perspective to us, and when they're sitting around with their families at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, they're representing the police department to the community in a unique way. So, that's really kind of the philosophical genesis to it.”
So far, Megan Phillips, a former full-time police officer from 2017-19 is the first reserve officer. As a mother caring for a young child, full-time service wasn’t possible, but reserve service was. Though Keller said the SPD haven’t advertised the program very much thus far, they’ve already had five interested members of the community inquire about it.
Those who are selected for the reserve program will go through a training, education, and background check process. That process can range from several months to more than a year depending on any previous law enforcement certifications, qualifications or no past law enforcement experience. Reserve officers are expected to give at least eight hours to the SPD each month to keep their skills up to date.
“They will be trained to the same standards and for the same capacity as full time officers and a citizen on the street won't be able to tell the difference when they're dealing with a reserve officer or full-time paid officer,” Keller said. “[They have the] same arrest power, same uniform, same capacity. That said, because they're not sharpening their skills as frequently, the primary use for them will be for basic traffic enforcement, backing up full time officers on calls and special events security, but they'll be equipped to handle anything that’s needed.”
Keller said that most law enforcement agencies in Wyoming have reserve officers, at least on paper, which is often for them to be able to keep their certifications current and not having them regularly engaged in patrols or other law enforcement duties. Reserve programs aren’t as common in this part of the county and are more common farther east. He cited an FBI statistic from 2015 that indicated over 5,000 law enforcement agencies throughout the country use reserve, volunteer, or auxiliary officers in some capacity.
“We're not just adding anybody, we're protecting the culture here,” he said. “We're only allowing reserve officers that would meet the same standard as full time officers. They’re volunteers, so it doesn't take any overtime or spots away from our regular officers.”
The SPD, like many in the state, has had issues with staffing, though their current situation is better than it has been in the past. They currently have a funding allotment for 31 full-time sworn officers and have the capacity to hire on two more.
“We just choose to find ways to serve the community whether we're short handed or not,” he said. “I think every department in the state has been really short handed. So technically, the answer is yes, we have been sort of handed but also we're closer to full staff that we've been in years, we've been really fortunate. We've gotten a lot of good applicants [in the] last few years. So, I think we do have a couple openings for full time officers, but that's less than we've had historically.”
The SPD hopes to incorporate their reserve program as something that will serve the community for the years to come.
Those who are interested may contact Lt. Keller for more information at (307) 672-2413.
