Police Seek to Recruit More Reserve Officers

Despite recent concerns of Chief Bob Burgreen that the police reserve program may have outlasted its usefulness, senior San Diego Police Department officials said Friday that they are planning a drive to recruit volunteer officers and use them to increase the number of two-officer patrols.

The plan, as envisioned by Deputy Chief Manny Guaderrama, would increase the number of police reserves from 130 to 200. The added manpower is aimed at helping officers fight the rising drug and gang problem.

“We want to put the emphasis of more people working the streets,” Guaderrama said Friday. “That’s where we want them. We want them to work primarily as second officers in a patrol car.”

Questioned Program

Burgreen, in a lengthy interview with The Times in January about ways to increase police manpower, questioned whether the reserve officer program offers a “real boost” to police work.

“Relying on volunteers to do the basic function of police work, I don’t think makes good sense,” he said. “Certainly not with the sophistication that a police officer has to have today.”

It is a lengthy and time-consuming process to properly train the reserve officers, he said, and many of the chores handled in the past by volunteers, such as directing traffic to special events, are conducted today by civilian traffic controllers.

“We have a cadre of (other support) people we can depend on,” he said.

Not for Abolition

But the chief did not advocate abolishing the reserve program.

“If people are willing to go through that training, we will have a place for them, and we will appreciate their efforts,” he said.

“But what I’m saying is that realistically we can’t rely upon there being a substantial enough number of people who will go through that training and keep up to speed in order to boost the numbers of police officers. That is unrealistic thinking.”

Burgreen was out of town Friday and could not be reached for comment about the new recruitment program.

Guaderrama agreed that the required six months of training have discouraged many people from volunteering for reserve duty. To overcome the problem, he said, the department will begin shaving five to eight weeks off the training for reserves and assign all new recruits to work with experienced officers in two-person patrol cars.

Other Incentives

Sgt. Charles Woodruff, the department’s reserve administrator, said other incentives to getting more volunteers include outfitting them with all standard police-issue equipment, such as flashlights, batons and Mace, and increasing their monthly uniform maintenance allowance.

To seek recruits, he said, the department plans public service announcements and other activities. He also expects many volunteers to like their duty enough to apply to become full-time sworn officers.

Guaderrama noted that, although there were as many as 400 reserve officers in some years in the 1970s, there have been only about 130 during the last five years.

“The big question now is how can we make them more productive?” he said. “How can we make them more useful? And there’s no way we’d do away with a chance for more cops. People would think we were nuts if we refused volunteers.”