The purpose of the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office Volunteer Program is to utilize volunteers to supplement and support sworn officers and civilian staff. The program is administered and supervised by the Volunteer Services Coordinator. The Volunteer Services Unit is located in the Town Center Mall Community Services Office.

Citizens’ Observation Patrol (C.O.P.) is one function of the VSU program. The C.O.P.s Road and Marine Units are a group of volunteers that patrol designated areas of Charlotte County and its waterways. These patrolling volunteers observe and report suspicious activity, people or objects. They are the “eyes and ears” of the Sheriff's office. They also handle vacation or seasonal un-occupied home checks, conduct well-being checks on the elderly or infirm individuals and other related functions as may be delegated by the Sheriff for the community. C.O.P. personnel do not take any law enforcement action.

Volunteers are issued shirts that must be worn while performing voluntter activities that clearly identify them as volunteers. C.O.P.s use patrol vehicles that have been remarked with the word “VOLUNTEER” and “Citizen’s Observation Patrol” or “Parking Enforcement”. C.O.P.s and Parking Enforcement Volunteers receive 40 hours of specific classroom training to provide them with the skills necessary to perform their particular volunteer assignments. Afterward the volunteers are “Field Trained” with an experienced volunteer. The Volunteer Coordinator is responsible for evaluating the volunteer before they are released to work on their own.

Do you want to be part of our family? Volunteerism is a noble endeavor and the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office is excited to be a part of this. If you are ready to donate some of your valuable time to the community and be part of the solution, complete a volunteer application today.

You are the missing piece of our puzzle.

Click here to download an application to volunteer at the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office (PDF). You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the file.

You can choose to print out the application and complete it by hand or you can use Acrobat Reader to fill out the application. If you fill out the application using Acrobat Reader, you will need to print your completed application before you close the program. It will not let you save the completed form.