There's story in the NY Times about how "two unarmed auxiliary police officers were fatally shot last night during a chase with a gunman on a busy stretch of bars and restaurants in the heart of Greenwich Village." According to the police, the gunman shot a waiter at a pizerria fifteen times in the back, and that is what prompted the auxiliary police officers to follow the gunman.
So, apparently New York city is having volunteers patrol the streets, unarmed, looking out for some criminal activity. That the criminals that the volunteers run into might be armed is apparently something that never occurred to the people who set up this program.
I shall state the obvious: either the volunteer auxilary police officers should be armed, or the whole auxiliary police officer program should be scrapped.