Capt. Carroll Burgess often hears only the rumble of pavement or the thump of gravel under his green-and-white Citizen Observer Patrol (COP) car. He rides alone with just his Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office radio for company.
Burgess is the lone COP volunteer working, watching, patrolling, calling in tips to the PBSO for the 140 square miles of the Acreage/Loxahatchee area and beyond.
Yet it’s a volunteer job that doesn’t allow for loneliness or boredom, Burgess said recently.
“I’m constantly looking,” he explained. “I’m focused on what’s going on around me.”
Still, riding the streets and backroads alone in such a vast area is not how Burgess wants it, or how it used to be before pandemic, when there were 3,000 COP volunteers on patrol around the county.
There were six in the Loxahatchee area when he came onboard in 2022. He’s now a captain with no one to command despite a population of some 50,000 in the semi-rural enclaves north of Southern Blvd.
“A lot of people didn’t want to be involved because of the pandemic… and a lot did not come back afterward,” said PBSO Cpl. Gregory Newborn, who oversees the program that began in 1980. “At the same time, we had a lot of people aging out.”
Today, the Village of Royal Palm Beach — population of 42,000 — has no COP presence. Meanwhile, the 6.5-square-mile City of Westlake has 16 volunteers among its 8,000 citizens since the unit’s formation in 2021.
“Currently, we have 1,314 members in the program, and we’re working hard to rebuild that number through ongoing recruitment,” Newborn said.
Burgess is doing what he can to help, attending local events, such as on Saturdays at the Royal Palm Beach Green Market and Bazaar, and encouraging those interested to apply. However, not just anyone can join the COP program.
Not only must an applicant pass a Florida Department of Law Enforcement background check, Newborn said, the individual also is scrutinized by the PBSO’s Internal Affairs Division. No one with a felony record need apply. Applicants with a misdemeanor record are considered on a case-by-case basis.
Once cleared, an applicant must undergo 16 hours of training in four-hour blocks.
“We go over the manual in detail,” Newborn said. “Everything they can and cannot do, then take them into the field to demonstrate how those procedures apply.”
Burgess is one of the field training officers (FTOs) who help recruits learn the ropes.
“Make sure the trainee can operate the radio and knows the phonic alphabet — you know, zebra, x-ray, Charlie — that sort of thing,” he explained. “When to use the [unit’s flashing yellow] lights. How to do a business check. How to put out cones at an accident scene.”
Newborn said COP volunteers play an important role at accident scenes, helping to direct traffic so sworn deputies can get back on patrol. In fact, there is a special COP unit — the Volunteer Emergency Response Team (VERT) — that assists with major incidents.
“Most of our volunteers serve between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.,” Newborn said. “[But] anytime there’s a major accident, members of our VERT team get called out even if its three in the morning.”
The COP program also offers several specialty units, including the Volunteer Against Scams Team (VAST), which educates citizens on how to avoid scams, and the Volunteer Marine Patrol, which monitors much of the 45 miles of the Intracoastal Waterway in Palm Beach County.
A married father of two, Burgess grew up in Broward County and started his career as a mechanic helping service the fleet of United States Post Office vehicles in Miami-Dade County. He and wife Lynne moved to the Acreage/Loxahatchee area in 1996 as he climbed the USPS ladder, eventually overseeing nationwide reports to Congress about all 230,000 vehicles. He retired in 2023 after 40 years.
Learning about the COP program at a South Florida Fair booth, Burgess said his interest was piqued.
“It really wasn’t about law enforcement. I wanted to do something where I’d be out there helping people,” he said.
Indeed, COP volunteers don’t wear ballistic vests, or carry guns or badges, only radios, notebooks and cell phones ready to call 911 if they spot criminal activity. Like any citizen, they can render emergency medical aid under certain limited circumstances.
“It’s more like people watching,” Burgess said, explaining that he keeps checks on the 14 parks in his coverage area, and cruises parking lots watching for someone trying car doors or loitering around a cash machine.
It’s as much about being seen as seeing. In their patrol cars, very similar to standard PBSO cruisers, Burgess said, “We’re a visual deterrent for criminals.”
COP volunteers are required to put in 12 hours and attend one meeting a month, though Burgess said he usually puts in around 20 — something that doesn’t always sit well with his wife, who did not want him to get involved due to safety concerns.
Still, Burgess said he believes he’s doing something valuable for the community and intends to keep at it “until it’s not fun anymore or my health fails… even if I have to do it as a lone ranger.”
For more information about the Citizen Observer Patrol program, including how to volunteer, call (561) 688-3980.
