Click here to download the catalog as a PDF file. To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. RESERVES PERRY W. hORNBARGER dEdICAtION ANd PROfEssIONAlIsM thAt GOEs BEYONd PAY. WHO’S IN T Silver Badge: here’s silver on the chest of a full-time sworn officer. CHARGE? B Make a Decision his question comes up occasionally, when in reality, it never should. Unless you happen to have the formal training and the street savvy of a veteran officer who’s out there five or so nights a week, the regular officer is always in charge. Does this mean the average reserve officer can’t perform the job adequately? I certainly hope not. Does this mean the regular officer always knows the right way to get the job done? Not necessarily, but they still hold the responsibility for their decisions and the actions taken on a call. A wise street officer will use whatever knowledge is at hand to help him make a decision. Just because a reserve officer may not have had the formal training — and presumably hasn’t been in a coma for their entire career — they may have seen this situation before and can offer some sound advice. The wise old reserve officer who’s been out there for 20 or 30 years just may be the go-to guy. ut deciding who’s in charge is something that needs to be understood up front. Arriving at a call is not the time to decide. Having said that, whoever’s not in charge should still do their job; providing good cover (read Russo’s Officer Survival column in this issue about Contact and Cover). Recently on the Internet I watched a tragic video. It showed two officers being killed by an assailant who seemed to be nothing more than a by-stander. I don’t know the details of the clip, but it seemed there must’ve been some misunderstanding of who was in charge. I watched the clip over and over, and Patches and names: what do the colors mean? Who is a thought, “what if I was that second officer, would I “regular” and who is a reserve? Is silver tops — or gold? do the right thing?” We should always try to second The public has no idea. guess ourselves and do a mental post-action review — and if we’re smart enough — learn something from it. One end up in the same situation. Remember, even if you’re not of my greatest fears as a unit commander is wondering if one in charge, you still have an important job to do: watch your of my people wouldn’t do their job as a cover officer and partner's back. W 28 hen our unit switched from a special police unit to an auxiliary unit in 2004, we changed uniforms to the same uniform as every other county officer. Only the badges and patches are different. With the old “different” uniform, required by state code, all the supervisors wore the standard rank insignias — Captain, Lieutenant and Sergeant. With the new uniform, Uniformly Confusing the department took our rank insignias away and changed from the standard rank structure to position designations. I went from Captain to Unit Commander, Auxiliary Lieutenant became Squad Leader, you get the idea. While this was a source of discontent among my staff, we all realized the average person doesn’t necessarily look at the patch or badge; they saw the same uniform and rank insignia and most people, with or with a military back- ground, recognized that. I understood why the department felt the need to do this. I commented to our department liaison on more than one occasion that “the last person I want to be confused with on a call is the person in charge.” I still stick by that quote today with the understanding I am an Auxiliary Officer and my job is to assist the officer on the street do his job by doing what I can and watching their back. * Perry W. Hornbarger is the Unit Commander of the Chesterfield, VA Auxiliary Police Unit. He can be reached at hornbargerp@yahoo.com. WWW.AMERICANCOPMAGAZINE.COM • MAY/JUNE 2009