Safety Patrol
The Safety Patrol is a service ran by Westmore Middle School. Its purpose, as seen in the movie, is to act as the "police" of the middle school. In the Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010 film), Greg Heffley refers to it as "the cops of middle school." Various tasks Safety Patrol members have to preform include: walking Pre-Schoolers to their day care and enforcing the laws of the school. Safety Patrol members have a lot of privileges --- free hot chocolate before homeroom/1st-period, missing at least twenty minutes of class and protection from bullies. According to Greg, if someone gets caught harassing a safety patrol officer, they can get into a lot of trouble, such as being suspended.
In the movie
Greg and Rowley Jefferson join the Safety Patrol because of the aforementioned advantages. Greg, however, abuses his right to be in the Safety Patrol by making the Pre-Schoolers that he was walking to their day care jump into a large hole. This was because Greg thought that the teenagers from Halloween were about to drive past, so he was trying to hide from them. This plan backfired, however, as not only did he mistake a man in a pickup for the teenagers, he was also spotted by Mrs. Irvine, who mistook him for Rowley, only because he was wearing Rowley's jacket. (Rowley was absent because he couldn't get his cast wet.) This resulted in Rowley being suspended from Safety Patrol. A while later, Mr. Winsky finds out the truth about what had happened, and Greg was suspended. Rowley was promoted to Team Captain for showing "dignity under false suspicion".
In the books
Greg and Rowley join the Safety Patrol because of the benefits.Their job was to walk some Pre-Schoolers back home. However, one day, Greg terrorizes the children with an earth-worm, they get scared and run with Greg chasing them. But, Mrs. Irvine saw him but because Greg was wearing Rowley's cap, she mistook him for Rowley and complained to Mr. Winsky. Rowley was removed from the Safety Patrol. Greg after being forced by his mother, and in guilt apologizes to Rowley and tells him the truth. Later, Mr. Winsky finds out the truth from an "anonymous source" (who was most likely Rowley, although it has never been confirmed) and suspends Greg and promotes Rowley to Team Captain. Rowley apparently left the Safety Patrols sometime after the first book, as he's never shown being part of it after that.
By the thirteenth book, the Safety Patrols have become all-girls, as all the male members either quit or got kicked out. Greg claims that the girls take the Safety Patrols much more seriously than any of the guys did, and are major sticklers for the rules. It's unknown if Mr. Winsky is still the advisor for the program, because he isn't seen or mentioned.
Also in the thirteenth book, Greg mentions that the last two male members of the Safety Patrols (both of whom were captains) were kicked out after they got into a major snowball outside of one of the Kindergarten classrooms at the elementary school.
In the snowball battle, after the Lower Surrey Street Kids destroyed Upper Surrey Street Kids' fort, the Upper Surrey Street Kids were out of ammo but they do think they have hope when they saw a Safety Patrol girls marching towards the Surrey Street Kids. Instead of helping them, they were there for revenge. They later joined with the Upper and Lower Surrey Street Kids, and Whirley Street Kids to battle the Mingos as they hate the Mingos even more than each other.
Appearances
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online) (First and only appearance online)
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid film
Gallery
Known Members
- Unnamed Captain
Former Members
- Greg Heffley
- Eric Reynolds
- Dougie Finch
- Rowley Jefferson
- All the male members