Community Outreach

Kids Print

We updated our KidsPrint program by purchasing a child digital fingerprinting machine through a grant from the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention. The KidsPrint program is a series of child digital fingerprinting events where parents bring their children, ages 3 to 15 years old, to be fingerprinted and photographed. No information is stored or uploaded to a database. The parent receives printout of the child's information to store for safe keeping.

Seat Belt Check

Park Police Volunteer Association (PPVA) partners with the Park Police to conduct a annual "Seat Belt Safety Check and Awareness" event at Watkins Regional Park. The purpose of the event is to educate and inform the community on the importance of wearing a seat belt. In past years, PPVA coordinated the event to support the Park Police participation in the Maryland Chiefs Challenge Campaign which is a program that challenges Maryland's law enforcement community to increase public awareness and enforce occupant protection safety laws. PPVA members distributed "Doing Something Right" Bowie Baysox baseball vouchers to vehicles that complied with the Maryland Seat Belt Law. Several hundred vehicles have participated in the program with a seat belt compliance of over 90%.

Pierre Summerville Bicycle Safety Program

Pierre Summerville was a Park Police Volunteer member who loved teaching children how to ride bicycles safely. After his passing in 2010 the Park Police and PPVA wanted to honor his dedication to children by starting the Pierre Summerville Bicycle Safety Program. We teach children bicycle safety through bicycle rodeos, etc. We also distribute helmets to children in need.

Festivals/Fairs

We assist with traffic, crowd control, security, handing out brochures, and talking to the public about our organization and the Park Police programs.

Adopt-A-Trail

Volunteers regularly do park clean-ups on a 3.5-mile section of the Northeast Branch hiker/biker trail system.