POULSBO — One moment you’re making vacation checks at private residences, the next, you’re directing traffic around a near-fatal vehicle accident on Bond Road.
Just another day for a dedicated group of volunteers whose accomplishments are often overlooked but whose contributions are considerable.
“Whenever we’re on patrol, we seem to be in the right place at the right time,” Poulsbo Police Department Citizen Volunteer Bobbi Wiprud said.
Now in its eighth year in Poulsbo, the Citizen Volunteers program began as the Poulsbo Police Senior Volunteers. Today, two of the 12 original volunteers still remain on the beat.
In February 2003, organizers decided to lower the minimum age in order to entice younger volunteers, which is when the patrol team of Wiprud, her son Glenn Wiprud Jr. and Barbara Parsons got involved.
Parsons, who joined the Citizen Volunteers two years ago, said her son sent her a newspaper article about a similar program in Lynnwood and then by coincidence, she heard of the Poulsbo program. She’d recently retired and was looking for a way to give back.
“I thought it sounded interesting and I wanted to see if it would be, and it was,” she commented.
Volunteers undergo extensive background checks and training, including defensive driving courses, to be sworn in to work for the City of Poulsbo. And though they’re not commissioned officers, the volunteers work closely with on-duty personnel, including the PPD Citizen Volunteers’ supervisor Officer Nick Hoke. Wiprud said all group members are proud of the work they do and the help they can be to the force.
“One time, we were on shift and (Hoke) was in pursuit and we didn’t want to go off shift until we knew he was OK,” Wiprud said. “It’s like a family. You get to know these officers and kind of feel that connection.”
Each team puts in a four-hour shift each week, which includes activities like doing vacation checks at Poulsbo homes, patrolling for cars illegally parked in handicapped spots, delivering official paperwork between City of Poulsbo buildings and assisting PPD officers when needed. In August, when a woman with vacular dementia went missing, PPD Citizen Volunteers were among the handful of agencies that responded to the call to help search. Members of the Poulsbo group also regularly help out with traffic control at community events like Viking Fest and the annual downtown trick-or-treating.
On their Thursday shift last week, highlights of the trio’s shift included helping Hoke push a stalled motorist’s car to a safe place, assisting in tracking down a suspect in a narcotics call and directing traffic in the aftermath of a messy head-on collision off Bond Road and Big Valley Road.
About 45 minutes into the crash investigation, the team was approached by an hysterical woman who thought her husband was involved in the accident. Wiprud put her arm around the woman and led her over to talk to police, who assured her that she was mistaken. Wiprud said it was an experience she’d never had in her three years with the Citizen Volunteers.
“It’s not the kind of thing you get training in,” she commented. “You just go in and do what you think is right.”
