CLIQUES : The Rookies

It’s like a scene out of “The Andy Griffith Show.”

“Hi, Mrs. Anton,” the policeman says to the elderly lady who answers the door. “Just checking to see if you’re OK.”

The woman’s face brightens up. “You look like you could do with a glass of lemonade, dear,” she says.

Thing is, rookie Ed Matson is older than many of the elderly folks he visits--he’s 82.

Welcome to Rancho Bernardo’s Retired Senior Volunteer Patrol--24 men and three women, all 60-plus--who help take pressure off the regular San Diego police officers based here.

R.S.V.P., one of several similar programs across the country, is funded by residents and civic groups; for the past seven months, the volunteers have patrolled Rancho Bernardo eight hours a day, every day, concentrating on positive crime-prevention--like checking the locks on houses of vacationing residents--and making what they call You Are Not Alone visits.

“If we visit some little old lady,” says Matson, “and see open cans of cat food lying around, but no cat, we know she needs help.”

They cruise in pairs, in the classic “buddy” system. “Our biggest problem,” says Billie Finney, 63, “is that by our age we tend to be a bit set in our ways.”

They don’t carry weapons or make arrests, but they do wear uniforms and they have helped nab a criminal. During a routine vehicle check, they found a stolen car, reported it on their police radio and the culprit was quickly arrested. But as a rule, says Finney, “if we feel trouble coming on, we make for the car and step on the gas.”