ST. GEORGE -- Vehicles marked with a St. George Police Department logo will be patrolling the new city later this year.

However, city leaders say it is not a full-time police department; in fact, it is part-time and volunteer-based.

This is part of an initiative by the city of St. George to expand its volunteer reserve officer program. St. George police chief Todd Morris says it's a cost-efficient way to provide services while avoiding long-term legacy costs associated with a full-time police department.

Right now, the main law enforcement presence for St. George is the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office. That will stay the same, even after the full implementation of the part-time officers.

"St. George was founded on a small government privatizing their services. They're not going to be the primary officers responding to calls for service from the sheriff's office; they would just supplement the sheriff's office working a major event, and they may need assistance if you had an active shooter. If [EBRSO] were working a major investigation, they might need some assistance in blocking off some roads," St. George Police Chief Todd Morris said.

One of the main uses for these part-time officers would be traffic and speeding enforcement, two things the city says it receives calls about frequently.

Earlier this week, WBRZ reported about speeding issues in the Country Manor subdivision in St. George. Morris and District 5 City Councilman Andrew Murrell say these new officers could assist with patrols in areas like those.

"Anytime we're able to add more boots on the ground and more services, then we get to expand that scope, and so yeah, that's a possibility as entering the neighborhoods to provide some additional law enforcement," Murrell said.

This budget year, the city allocated nearly $300,000 for this expansion to its public safety.

"The dollar amount, we're going to have to purchase some vehicles, and of course the vehicles need to be outfitted. They would be a marked uniform Tahoe with the present City of St. George on it. " We have to buy uniforms, office supplies for them, and buy the computer system," Morris said.

In May, the city passed an ordinance naming the first two reserve officers, with more on the way. One of them has already started.

"Our goal would be to have not a fixed number, but eight or 10 here in the next couple of years. We have a couple of applicants we're looking at now, and they've been going through the process that I know they want to help out and be a part of this," Morris said.

They also hope to have two to three vehicles by the end of the year. Morris says that each part-time officer would still have the same training a regular police officer would have.

"This has kind of been in the works ever since our inception, the idea of creating a reserve group of officers that can work here in St. George and on their off time from other places," St. George Mayor Dustin Yates said.

St. George also uses a private company called On-Scene Services to handle minor traffic accidents. Chief Morris says this will continue even with the new part-time officers.

"On-Scene Services will continue with the small traffic crash investigation portion for the city and once again help supplement the sheriff's office and Louisiana State Troopers by them responding to the minor traffic crashes and minor injuries and private property crashes," Morris said.

Morris also says that their uniforms will be easily identifiable by the public.