Discord in the ranks of a volunteer group dedicated to fighting crime in Rutland has threatened the continued existence of the year-old Volunteers in Police Services program.

But the program's volunteer coordinator and police liaison said Thursday they're determined to rebuild the citizens' patrol, which shrunk this month from eight members to three.

"I believe it's going to survive but it's been a real challenge," said Jennifer Cavacas, VIPS coordinator. "These last few months have been hard, but I think it's going to get better."

The volunteer patrol — distinguishable due to their blue jackets, brown hats and hand-held radios — hit the streets about a year ago.

But the group's origins trace back almost a year before that.

In the wake of a fatal drug-related shooting in February 2008, dozens of residents asked at public hearings what they could do to fight the rising tide of crime.

Of the dozens who spoke, about 15 people applied last year to patrol with VIPS and nine eventually hit the bricks on patrols curtailed to the city's downtown.

While the program hasn't fit the vision of what some residents sought two years ago, the visible volunteers were praised Thursday by Community Policing Coordinator Timothy Tuttle, of the Rutland City Police Department.

"It's amazing, especially at events like Friday Night Live. People go to them and seek information when they're down there," Tuttle said. "They come to them because they're more approachable, I think."

But while popular with the public, Cavacas said the group was split from the start due to personality clashes.

"It should have been people go in there, sign out and do our thing. We don't all have to love each other, we just have to do what we signed up for," she said.

But five members of the group — who she said were related through family and friendship — took personal issue with other members of the group, Cavacas said.

At the start of this month, she said Lt. Kevin Geno of the city police department — which works with, but doesn't run the volunteer group — was asked to act as a mediator in a last ditch attempt to resolve the differences.

"That did not work," she said of the mediation. "Right from the start, there was finger pointing and yelling and screaming. I just stood up and said 'This is why it's falling apart.'"

The rift in the group also spilled out onto the comments section of the Rutland Herald Web site, where Cavacas and another poster exchanged angry accusations about the VIPS program earlier this month.

The person who sparred with Cavacas also sent an e-mail to the Herald describing frustration with being told to leave the city police department at the end of the unsuccessful mediation.

The Herald is not using the name the posts were signed under because the person's identity could not be confirmed.

With only three remaining members, Cavacas said her group's coverage of the downtown was incomplete but she held out hope that more volunteers may be found.

"I've been thinking about working with one of the colleges as an opportunity for students to earn hours of community service," she said.

Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Cavacas at excrash@comcast.net.

brent.curtis@rutlandherald.com