Volunteers to Help with Traffic Citations

In Midwest City, Oklahoma, city leaders are discussing strengthening a program that allows volunteers to issue parking citations. The program has already been in place, but now the city is proposing to allow volunteers the authority to ticket cars with expired license plates.

Volunteers for the program must pass a background check and complete a 16-hour class. They are then issued citation books and granted the authority to ticket drivers who violate ordinances such as parking in a handicap space or having expired plates. They work at their leisure and while they do not have a badge or uniform, they are issued an identification card.

A key measure to this program makes it illegal for anyone to interefere, assault or obstruct a parking enforcement officer. People who are found guilty of the above face up to a $750 fine and 60 days in jail.

The Chief of Police, Brandon Clabes, hopes this will help get people off the streets that are driving illegally.

Volunteer Firefighter With Criminal Record Arrested Again

Byron Fritz, 39, recently left his position as a volunteer firefighter in Augusta County, Virginia after two years. The reason? He was recently arrested after trying to sell law enforcement supplies to a Sheriff.

Sheriff Randy Fisher immediately became suspicious of Fritz and his business, and conducted a background check on Fritz. It revealed that in 1994, he was arrested for impersonating a police officer. In 1997, a court issued an order that he could not possess law enforcement items such as badges, patches or even white vehicles resembling those driven by law enforcement.

Shortly after the background check was completed, the sheriff's office raided Fritz's business, seizing dozens of police badges, handcuffs, stun guns, and pepper spray.

Up until the arrest and seizure occurred, Fritz was a volunteer firefighter despite his criminal record. The Augusta County Fire Department is investigating how he was allowed to become a volunteer firefighter. Chief Mike Fisher was quoted as saying, "A lot of those charges against Mr. Fritz were old charges. I mean, in 2006 when he submitted his application, the last time that was charged was over eight years ago, and any probation or anything like that would be well over by then."

We were able to pull up Fritz's prior record dating back to 1993, which included charges of failure to appear, probation violations, possession of a concealed weapon and driving on a suspended license.

Chief Myers has said that many fire departments across the country are desperate for volunteers and he understands how someone, such as Fritz, could "fall through the cracks."