By James V. Horrigan
Staff Writer
They’re called Volunteers in Police Service, or VIPS, which rhymes with zips, but if you ask Scarborough Police community resources officer Joe Giacomantonio, the 18 men and women in the three-year-old program are very important people.
“They take the minor tasks away from the patrol officers and allow them to spend more time enforcing the law,” said Giacomantonio, a 23-year Scarborough police veteran. “They do everything from filing reports and directing traffic to conducting child car seat inspections.”
There are more than 1,600 VIPS programs in North America, including 38 in Maine. The program is part of the Citizens Corps, which is under the umbrella of the USA Freedom Corps that President George W. Bush proposed in his 2002 State of the Union address as a way of building on the volunteerism and generosity that followed the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
Scarborough breaks its VIPS into three categories: administrative, community service and public safety.
“The administrative – they help us with paperwork, filing, answering phones and other stuff around the station,” Giacomantonio said.
He described Tammy Keimach, a volunteer who oversees day-to-day operation of the program, as “basically my right hand.”
Keimach, 39, said her interest in the administrative/management aspect of the program stems from her previous work experience and her degree in business administration from Bentley College, in Waltham, Mass.
“I responded to an ad I saw in the local paper back in February 2005,” she said. “My education and experience seemed to be a good match.”
Although the program started out with a $10,000 grant from the federal government, administered through the state, there is no line item in the police budget set aside for training VIPS.
“The only cost is my time and that’s part of my job, to oversee community programs,” Giacomantonio said.
Although it is difficult to quantify, the volunteers probably end up saving the town money, Keimach said.
“We’re just helping them by freeing up some of their time so they can be out there doing true police work, instead of being bogged down with some of the mundane work,” she said.
Since the program’s August 2005 inception, Scarborough VIPS have donated about 4,200 hours, Keimach said. She points to figures released by Independent Sector, a coalition that calculates the hourly value of volunteer time at $18.77, and figures the work that she and her colleagues do would cost about $36,000 annually.
But she cautions against looking at the number as money saved.
“The officers would have somehow crammed in the work that we’re doing,” Keimach said.
Giacomantonio said every task they undertake, no matter how small, has a benefit.
“There’s little things they do here and there, as simple as delivering the agendas every two weeks to the town council, that really add up,” he said.
According to Steve Kitchen, 54, who prefers community service activities but will do virtually any job asked, the bigger things add up, too, such as child car seat inspections, fingerprinting for kids and bicycle helmet fittings.
A retired small business owner and 30-year Scarborough resident, Kitchen said the interaction with residents is usually a positive and satisfying experience.
“The moms and dads are always appreciative of this kind of service we are providing them,” he said.
Ed Libby, 65, prefers the public safety aspect of VIPS, such as directing traffic and patrolling parking lots.
Their presence on the scene, Giacomantonio said, is often sufficient to deter crime, even if their main goal is to enforce parking violations, and keep fire lanes open.
“They’re vigilant in deterrence and report any suspicious activity,” he said.
Libby, who said he always keeps an ear toward his police scanner, has his own reasons for choosing public safety patrols.
“I have never liked office work and this gives me a chance to be outside,” Libby said.
He was prompted to get involved one day after listening to reports from a police officer who was chasing a dog around Pleasant Hill. All the while, Libby said, he looked out the window of his Green Acres home and counted 21 stop sign violations in 10 minutes.
“So I said, ‘Let me go chase the dog and let the police take care of stop sign violations,’” he said.
Giacomantonio said he can use additional VIPS in all three areas, but it is the public safety issue he is most concerned with.
Currently, there is no cap on the number of residents that can take part in the VIPS program. Giacomantonio said there is an open enrollment policy and that training takes place on a continual basis. But he hopes that might change.
“As soon as we have enough new recruits we’ll start a basic class for them and get them going so they’re caught up to speed, but we do a lot of on-the-job training and shadowing with those who are more experienced,” he said.
Kitchen said there is no set schedule of operations and pointed out that since the police are always open for business, there is almost always a need for a volunteer to perform some task.
“You are asked to do only what you are comfortable doing, never anything more. You are asked to volunteer only the time you have available, never any more,” Kitchen said.
He said volunteers are trained only in areas they feel comfortable learning and since almost every task involves at least one other VIP, very few activities are done alone.
 “We have the absolute support of the police force, from Chief [Robert] Moulton to all the patrol officers, and the support of the Scarborough community. We have a positive impact on every event we are involved in and we are a fun group of volunteers,” he said.
Keimach said VIPS range in age from 21 to mid-70s.
“It’s a wonderful program with wonderful people. There’s just about something for everyone,” she said.
Tragedy visited the program almost one year ago when founding member Jim Durant was struck and killed by a vehicle while directing traffic, but Kitchen said he doesn’t want that accident to deter potential new recruits.
“We are not police officers. We don’t arrest or even chase the bad guys. We are the eyes and ears of the police department, reporting what we see and hear by radio,” he said.
Keimach said a remembrance ceremony for Durant will be at 9 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 15, the one year anniversary of his passing. The service will take place behind town hall on Durant Drive, which was renamed in his honor.
For more information on the VIPS program contact Keimach at 730-4200, ext. 4847.