Lending a hand: CSOs free up police for law enforcement

CHARLESTON - Whether they are opening a car door for someone who locked his keys inside, directing traffic around an accident or pushing a broken down car out off of a busy road, the volunteer Community Service Officers working with the Charleston Police Department serve the community and allow police officers to concentrate on fighting crime.

"Last year we had almost 5,000 hours of volunteer time," Stan Halstead, Assistant Volunteer Coordinator and CSO Supervisor for the Charleston Police Department, said. "It's a supplemental service we provide to the community and the officers."

With 11 people in the program, five of them fully certified to direct traffic and take on other non-investigative responsibilities traditionally handled by police and the other five currently going through the training, the CSO force is small but effective.

Within two hours on Friday, July 22, CSO Field Training Officer (FTO) Dave Malara and CSO-in-training Kevin King popped a locked car door for a man on James Island, stopped to help a motorist change a tire on I-526, directed traffic around a stalled vehicle on an overpass on Ashley River Road - and eventually had to push the vehicle down the bridge to a connecting street to get it out of harm's way, and directed traffic around a wreck on Wesley Drive between Ashley River Road and Savannah Highway.

"Days (in the field) vary," Malara said. "There are days when we don't get any calls and there are days when we get call after call after call."

The CSO program has its own vehicles, most of them pickup trucks with hydraulic jacks, door lock kits and various other tools they may need in the field, and are in radio contact with police dispatch. CSOs can also issue "white forms," which are non-investigative forms, at minor traffic accidents where no injuries are involved, so that police officers don't have to spend their time on the minor accidents.

"We go West Ashley to James Island to Daniel Island, wherever they need us," Malara said.

"You get lockouts in the neighborhoods a bunch, but it varies," King said. "You just never know day to day, there's always something different."

Most of the training to become a CSO is on the job training, Malara said. The police department runs a background check on applicants before they begin. Next an applicant goes out on an introductory ride-along with a CSO to make sure it is something he or she wants to do, and then most of what the trainees are taught they learn by doing. Finally once the trainee and the FTO are comfortable the trainee will go before a board of three Charleston Police officers for an oral examination.

"Once they get that far pretty much everyone gets through the oral board," Malara said.

"It's a lot of hands on, on the job training, " King said. "There's a lot of remembering codes and procedures, you're always learning something new."

King has been cleaning carpets in the Lowcountry for the past 22 years and owns his own company. He's been a CSO in training for a couple of months, and Malara said he's just about ready to go out on his own.

Malara was the one who recruited King. They both live in Village Green off Ashley River Road. In fact Halstead also lives in the neighbourhood.

"I guess that's a hot-spot for CSOs," King joked.

Malara has been a CSO for three years. He joined the program about a year after moving to Charleston. He owns a few businesses in Wisconsin and one locally, but because he works from home and has a flexible schedule he finds lots of time to volunteer.

"I used to volunteer as a firefighter and EMT, when I moved here four years ago in West Ashley there is no volunteer fire department to volunteer with so I was looking for something to do and found out about the CSO program and it was exactly what I was looking for," Malara said.

In addition to working with the CSO program Malara is also volunteer with the Charleston County Rescue Squad, an EMT, president of his neighborhood association and a S.C. State Constable.

"There are so many opportunities here that weren't available up north," he said.

"It's a way to give back," King said. "It's nice that you can lift somebody up."

CSOs can devote as much or as little time to the program as they like, though Malara said they ask at least eight hours a month.

"The department pays for the training and the uniforms and the radios and equipment, so they want to make sure it's worth it," Malara said. "We have some people that volunteer 40 hours a week."

CSO's also help out with special events all over the city, usually helping direct traffic into and out of parking areas. They can also take boots off of cars that have been booted by parking enforcement officers.

"We don't put them on though," Malara said.

The job is not without risks though. King and Malara are both concerned about drivers paying more attention to their phones and text conversations than the road on which they are traveling. Malara said CSOs have to remain aware of everything happening at locations where they are directing traffic.

"You turn your back for a second and there's a car trying to sneak past you," he said.

But by far the feeling of contributing to the quality of life of their community and helping their neighbors is what drives Malara and King, and many other CSOs to continue spending the hours in the hot summer sun or in the rain or in whatever Mother Nature throws this way to serve the Charleston area.

Initially CSO volunteers were trained by Charleston Police officers, but as the program has grown members like Malara have become FTOs and are now training the new volunteers. And the program is always looking for more people, Halstead said.

"We're going to have a recruiting station at the Walmart in West Ashley soo," he said.

Applications for the CSO program are available at the Charleston Police Station at 180 Lockwood Blvd. downtown, or at charlestonpdvolunteers.com.