Countywide : Senior Volunteers Help Fight Crime

Neither rain nor heavy smog has kept 81-year-old Helen Oldfield from working two hours each day for the past five years at the Tustin Police Department.

“I’m faithful. I never missed a day or anything,” Oldfield said. “It’s better to go out and do instead of sitting and moping.”

Oldfield, who does filing and record-keeping for the investigation division, is the only senior volunteer at the Tustin Police Department, which is among a dozen departments countywide that are recruiting senior citizens.

Farther south in San Clemente, more than two dozen volunteers supplement the force. Unlike Oldfield, who wears civilian clothes, they don department-issue uniforms (although different from those worn by sworn officers) and drive police vehicles.

The San Clemente volunteers range in age from 60 to 82. Their duties include patrols near homes whose residents have left for vacation, fingerprinting, clerical work, traffic and crowd control.

A recent report on San Clemente’s program estimated that the volunteers had contributed $685,000 worth of time between 1985 and 1990. During the same time period, they have issued tickets totaling more than $200,000 in fines.

The program takes its inspiration from the Orange County Volunteer Center’s Retired Seniors Volunteer Program, which is a nationwide volunteer network established as part of the Older Americans Act of 1971.

Laurie Smith, associate director of the center’s program, said police departments have started to show more interest in such volunteer programs. “There is really great interest in this, especially with the cutbacks some departments are forced to make,” Smith said.

She said that while senior citizens can do much of the work that sworn officers do, “volunteers are not there to take away paid positions.”

Costa Mesa, Cypress and Fountain Valley are other cities that use the volunteer center’s program to augment their police departments. Dana Point, Newport Beach and Irvine hope to begin similar programs soon, Smith said.

“We have found that seniors are a dynamic resource. They have the time and the ability,” Smith said. “It can really be a win-win situation.”