COPs Volunteers Help Protect the Woodlands

Eli is a COP volunteer in the Woodlands in Tamarac. He is 93 years old and very active.

Every Community should be taking advantage of this Program

Did you know that we have a Citizens Observer Patrol program here in the Woodlands? The Citizen Observer Patrol (or COP) is the Broward Sheriff’s Office community policing program. Our residents help patrol the Woodlands free of charge as BSO provides us with a car, gas and all upkeep.

All we have to do is provide volunteers are COPs certified after taking a training class. Once certified and trained, residents drive around in pairs with different scheduled shifts. The way the Woodlands does this is by rotating the car between nine sets of volunteers. This way, each pair volunteers only every other month.

What do you do while driving around?

The function of the Citizen Observer Patrol is to observe and report suspicious circumstances and criminal violations within assigned areas of responsibility. COPs volunteers cannot approach or arrest people. Any activity that looks suspicious must be reported to BSO by phone.

Volunteers drive around and basically become the eyes and ears of BSO.   For instance, last week my partner Richard and I saw two suspicious kids stopped near a home on bicycles in Section One.   Once seeing us, they started riding away.   One was wearing a small backpack which didn’t look like it was holding any school books.   We slowly followed them while calling our BSO roving patrol officer.   The officer caught up to them while they were exiting Sago Palm and stopped them.  He spoke to them and made one of them empty his backpack. The kids told the officer they were looking for a shortcut to their school.  He wrote down their names and didn’t find anything incriminating and saw that they exited out to Rock Island Road.    The officer thanked us and told us we did the right thing by reporting anyone suspicious.

At November’s WHOA meeting, BSO said that there were five residential burglaries in October.   Many of these were during the day and one was even reported by a lawn crew in Section One where they surprised two men breaking into a home.

Would you like to be a volunteer?

Woodlands Resident Karen Long heads up our COP program.  If you are interested in finding out more about it, please email her at Karen Long.

Several times a year, BSO in Tamarac have a training class. You can choose to be a driver or a passenger or both. Contact: Deputy Brad Miller, Tamarac 954-720-2225, or Deputy Carl Fitzgerald 954-720-2239 for more information and classes. Becoming a COP volunteer requires a criminal background check.