Economic Crime Unit - Public Safety
This unit investigates financialinformation of a very personal nature. It is imperative that any volunteer recognizes this and has a background conducive to sensitive material. Volunteers must be willing to learn of the constantly changing trends in fraud related crimes. Volunteers must be willing to perform some clerical duties that involve, but are not limited to, computer data entry, filing, and background or research information via the internet. Volunteers in this unit will do some phone work and will rarely do work in the field. Participation in investigative work will be determined by the volunteer’s background, willingness to learn and commitment of time.
The volunteer must be willing to commit to several hours a day for preferably three days a week. These times can be flexible for the volunteer. The volunteer must recognize that these types of investigations are labor intensive and involved the retention of various types of documents. A financial background would be extremely helpful.
Procedure for Becoming a Volunteer
All volunteers must go through this procedure to become a volunteer with the police and fire departments.
1. Complete an application. (Same application is used for both departments.)
2. A background check is run on all applicants.*
3. If the background check comes back clean, then the application is sent to the Criminal Investigation Unit for a CVSA
(Computer Voice Stress Analysis) appointment to be set up.
This test is a modern version of a polygraph test.
4. Once the applicant has passed the above steps, they are called in for an interview with the Volunteer Coordinator and/or the department supervisors in the area of interest.
This whole process could take as much as a month from start to finish.
*Note: Volunteer positions that do not require the volunteers to work inside the buildings will only have to go through Step 2.
To request an application please contact:
Cheryl Sine, Volunteer Coordinator
West Palm Beach Police Department
600 Banyan Road
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Phone: (561) 822-1621
Remember: By volunteering you are helping the police
officers make our community a safer place to live, work and
play.