| Our Team has been effective in many areas including reporting drunk drivers, spotting fleeing felons resulting in their capture, and finding injured and missing persons. Perhaps one of the most noteworthy services we provided in years past was assisting the Leesburg Police Department in maintaining a uniformed presence at our schools during the Washington, DC sniper incident in October of 2002. After the snipers made good on their threat against school children by shooting a student, our department asked the Support Team for volunteers to serve visibly in front of each of our local schools. For the duration of the event until the snipers were captured, our Team members joined the Town police, morning and afternoon, at our assigned schools during drop off and pick up times. During these assignments, we reported suspicious vehicles parking within sight of our posts while police and other Support Team patrol units cruised the neighborhoods and helicopters circled overhead. This event was the only time since the formation of our Leesburg Police Citizens Support Team that we intentionally put our people at risk. It was with a great sense of relief that we received word that the snipers had been apprehended some 30 miles north of our community. |