Auxiliary

The Lawrence County Sheriff's Auxiliary is a volunteer company organized under the Office of the Sheriff with its officers commissioned by the Sheriff: an organization, training program, and resource pool for the county sheriff to call upon and deputize as necessary in an emergency situation. The goal of this program is to achieve the best possible emergency readiness at the least cost under difficult budgetary circumstances while minimizing reliance on outside resources and intervention. The program is an operational test of the concept which will be adjusted as needed and perhaps replicated elsewhere.

The unit motto, "Per ardua liberi," means, "Freedom through adversity." It is through difficult times and in handling crises that it is most important for us to maintain our identity and our dignity as a free people. Freedom is a gift dearly bought, maintained through service and our duty to each other.

Mission Statement

To supplement the Sheriff's capabilities in routine operations (e.g. neighborhood patrols) and provide a pool of trained, pre-qualified, well-coordinated teams during non-routine operations (e.g. a disaster). The Auxiliary is not intended to replace deputies or the Reserve Deputy Program, in or out of an emergency, but to provide complementary skills and provide opportunities for community members to participate who do not desire a career in law enforcement. The Auxiliary is intended neither to provide primary law enforcement nor criminal investigative skills. The Auxiliary answers to the Office of the Sheriff when properly called up and directed in an emergency; Auxiliary members have no authority when not empowered and directed by the Sheriff. At the same time, the Auxiliary shall not be the personal gang of the Sheriff and is to be used only in the furtherance of public order and in defense of the community at large.

Specifically:

1. To perform routine tasks, such as neighborhood patrols, to free up deputies and funding where possible.
2. To provide additional manpower in an emergency either by performing rear-area tasks, freeing up deputies, or by performing forward relief tasks and allowing deputies to concentrate on law-enforcement/investigation. (Examples: directing traffic, maintain checkpoints or barriers at an incident site, guarding equipment or facilities, assistance in search and rescue operations, providing for refugees, augmenting neighborhood patrols, etc.)
3. To provide a pre-qualified pool of volunteers who could be deputized in an emergency if the reserve deputy pool is exhausted.
4. To provide operational support for the Sheriff's Office on extended field deployment (e.g. hot meals and bunks, secure and staff field operations center, communications support).
5. To field teams of local volunteers who are already trained and coordinated as teams. These teams, depending on the task, can operate under the direction of an attached deputy or be deployed independently within an existing county emergency response structure. An emphasis would be placed on skills complementary to the Sheriff's needs but infrequently employed, such as tracking, orienteering, reconnaissance, equestrian skills, posse, specialized tactical support, and field-expedient construction and/or demolition.
6. To provide a core of trained officers and leaders to organize and train other volunteers for an extended domestic circumstance, such as would result in a State Guard call-up.
7. To assist the Office of the Sheriff in coordinating with other local volunteer efforts, such as Neighborhood Watches and disaster relief organizations. In the event of external emergency personnel (e.g. Red Cross or National Guard, deputies from other counties) being employed in Lawrence County, the Auxiliary shall provide local guides and liaisons for the local community.
8. To organize and implement a resilient emergency communications structure to connect from emergency professionals to the local neighborhoods for relaying emergency communications (e.g. request for help, report a fire) from neighborhood to emergency dispatch and to pass news/bulletins to the neighborhoods in the case of a general network/grid outage. ARES volunteers already provide a volunteer emergency network to connect between emergency organizations and volunteers. This network would connect ARES volunteers to non-HAM operators in the local communities and subsume some of the functions of REACT to monitor citizens' radio bands for emergency communications where it is not currently in place.
9. To bring emergency skills into the community and disseminate them in order to encourage self-reliance, improve general emergency readiness across the board. Officers of the Auxiliary are expected to adhere to a code of conduct and be exemplary members of the community.
10. The Auxiliary is primarily intended to serve within the county. Members may volunteer for deployment to neighboring counties where the Lawrence County Sheriff sends assistance. The Auxiliary is also intended to coordinate with the Missouri State Guard structure if or when reactivated.

For further information, click here to go to the Auxiliary website.

Please address postal mail to:
Lawrence County Sheriff's Auxiliary
240 North Main St. Suite 10
Mount Vernon, MO 65712

To email the Lawrence County Sheriff's Auxiliary office, click here.