When he was in his nineties, Bertrand Russell, one of the most influential thinkers
of the twentieth century, summarized his personal philosophy:

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing
for love, the search for knowledge and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. ¹

All people want and need to be admired and to have prestige. In order to
achieve these precious satisfactions, many persons have joined groups. In fact,
according to a 1974 Census Bureau survey, one out of four Americans over the
age of thirteen does some form of volunteer work. ² More and more people are
finding free time on their hands and want to do something with it. John Bonner
found a correlation to exist between authoritarianism in auxiliaries and how they
viewed their own occupational status:

The lower an auxiliary perceived his occupational station to be, the higher was his de-
gree of authoritarianism. This might help explain why some auxiliaries are drawn to
police work. Are they perhaps seeking to identify with a group that they perceive as
having high status? ³

Traditionally, new immigrant groups sought out police work for status and
security, but today such positions are scarce. On the other hand, volunteer po-
lice positions are readily available. In such programs anyone may gain some
status, but generally no monetary security. Moreover, contemporary news-
paper reports and police department statistics reveal that greater numbers of mi-
nority group members are seeking ways to control crime in their communities.
Significantly, the percentage of black, Puerto Rican, Jewish and Chinese aux-
iliary police officers is higher than that on the regular police force. Currently,

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