OUR HISTORY
The Green Valley Sheriff’s Auxiliary Volunteers has grown from a band of
CB radio enthusiasts who helped the Sheriff with search operations and
home visits into a highly trained group of volunteers who assist the
Pima County Sheriff’s Department in a wide range of services throughout
Green Valley.
In 1978,
the Pima County Sheriff’s Department introduced the Citizen Bear to
Green Valley. The Citizen Bear was comprised of Green Valley volunteers
used
Citizen Band radios for communication. At this time, the role of the
Citizen Bear was limited to
assisting in
search
and rescue
operations and home visits.
The
Pima County Sheriff’s Department was a national leader
in using citizen volunteers.
With that in mind, it was no surprise that Sheriff
Clarence William
Dupnik decided to expand volunteerism even further. Sheriff Dupnik
tasked a group of individuals to develop a larger more comprehensive
group of volunteers. The focus was to develop a program which would
model the Green Valley Citizen Bear group while serving all of
unincorporated Pima County.
The department soon learned that the talent of the volunteers vastly
exceeded its expectations of what the volunteers could do. The Citizen
Bear program evolved into a new concept of volunteerism. This evolution
prompted an eventual change in the group’s name to the Pima County
Sheriff’s Department Sheriff’s Auxiliary Volunteers of the Green Valley
District, Incorporated, or Green Valley SAV.
It did not take long for the responsibilities of this volunteer
organization to expand far beyond what was initially anticipated. SAV
now operates in a wide variety of areas,
including:
•
Bike Patrol
•
Business ID
•
Citizen Care
•
Community Lock Boxes
•
Crime Prevention Education
•
ERT Emergency Response Team
•
Farmers’ Market
•
Fingerprinting
•
General Patrol
•
Home Security Checks
•
Home Security Presentations
•
Justice Court Bailiff
•
Neighborhood Watch
•
PCSD Front Desk
•
Scam Squad
•
SAV Front Desk
•
SAV Training
•
Special Events
•
TeleCare Services
•
Vehicle Etching
The
SAV
members
are exceptionally trained individuals who represent the department in an
extraordinary manner. Since 1981,
the SAV
has provided over 1 million hours of service to the community. Through
their contributions, the Sheriff’s Auxiliary Volunteers are a vital part
of our efforts to enhance the quality of life in
our
community.