Calling UP THE Reserves : Civilian Volunteers Put Many Talents to Work for LAPD

If it weren’t for 70-year-old Max Kerstein, hundreds of criminals in the hands of Los Angeles police would have slipped through their fingers.

Since he began double-checking criminal records for the LAPD in 1982, Kerstein, an expert at searching computer databases, has found that 858 suspects in LAPD custody were wanted for major crimes--homicides, burglaries, rapes--that police failed to notice when checking their records. Overall, he has linked suspects to more than 5,000 outstanding warrants police had missed, according to police records.

“He is very valuable to us,” said Lt. Barry Morrison of the Rampart Division. “He knows the (computer) systems very well. He can match crimes committed under different aliases (by the same person), and can locate criminals who are listed under several birth dates.”

Most important, he works 20 hours a week--usually nights and weekends--for free.

Kerstein is one of 247 volunteers in the LAPD’s specialist reserve officer program. Started in 1980, the program takes advantage of skilled civilians who have offered their services to the LAPD.

“In supporting the officers and the community, they are indispensable,” said Sgt. Duane Kelliher of the LAPD’s Training Division, which oversees all reserves. “When a specialist reserve does something a regular officer usually does, or something we would have to hire someone to do, he saves the department money.”

Specialist reserves have been under-utilized in the past, says Kelliher. But with Mayor Richard Riordan’s new police plan, the program should become larger. In a time when the LAPD is short on money and personnel, specialist reserves can provide police with support that helps free more officers to work the streets. In the first half of this year alone, specialist reserves worked 24,112 hours--more than $460,000 worth of work at the LAPD officer’s salary of $19.13 an hour, according to statistical officer Tom Lindsey.

It would cost much more than that to hire most specialist reserves, however.

“My fees are $150 an hour, so they are getting quite a bargain with me,” said Merv Asa-Dorian, a clinical psychologist who is a specialist reserve officer.

Although he mostly interviews prospective officers at the Police Academy, Asa-Dorian said many officers informally consult him rather than a psychologist paid by the Police Department because they do not want their peers to perceive them as troubled.

Specialist reserve officer Bob Wong, director of youth ministries for the Southern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, is a chaplain for the Hollywood Division, helping officers and victims of crime through crises.

When Detective Russell Kuster was shot to death several years ago, Wong helped Kuster’s wife, and the officers in the division, deal with his death.

“Some of the other officers were really stressed out,” Wong said. “I let them ventilate their anger. It’s a real sense of accomplishment when you help people in times like that.”

The mounted patrol, based in the Metropolitan Division, benefits from the unusual services of specialist reserve officer Jim Costello, a chiropractor who treats the officers--and their horses.

“If you’ve ever been to a chiropractor, twisted up like a pretzel, well, imagine him doing that to a 1,200-pound horse,” said Sgt. Kirk Smith of the mounted patrol.

The LAPD’s Asian Crime Investigation Section utilizes specialist reserve officer Comson Piramsuk, an interpreter who is fluent in five Chinese dialects, Laotian and Thai.

“We use him a lot,” said detective Sam Masuda. “There have been so many times where we had witnesses or victims of crimes, but could not communicate with them.”

Several celebrities, including actor James Garner and former pop music star Bobby Sherman, are specialist reserve officers. Sherman teaches first aid and CPR at the Police Academy and Garner emcees police functions.

One of the best things about the program, say police, is that it costs very little. Specialist reserves are paid only $15 a month, and most turn the money over to a police fund.

And unlike other reserve officers, specialist reserves do not need special training at the academy. Only an interview and a background check are required, Kelliher said.

The specialist reserve program also gives many senior citizens a chance to be a part of something constructive. Frank Iversen, 78, a former building engineer for Shell Oil, is now a specialist reserve officer in the Rampart Division. He works with auto theft detectives three days a week, sorting paperwork and calling people whose cars have been recovered by police.

“By my coming in, I save the victims a lot of money in (towing and storage) charges, because they wouldn’t be called until later in the week,” Iversen said.

By volunteering his time, Iversen also frees detectives to do detective work. He was recently honored as Rampart Division Officer of the Quarter.

Elaine Avery, 71, helps the Organized Crime Intelligence Division by designing computer charts and graphs of their data.

“I put it in an easier form to read,” said Avery, who works four days a week. “It saves them oceans of time.”

A former records supervisor for the LAPD’s Van Nuys Division, Avery retired in 1988 after 31 years with the department, only to return as a specialist reserve officer a few months later.

“You need to be needed,” Avery said. “Your kids have grown, their kids have grown, and you have nothing to do, so why not work? The old people have the experience and the moxie the LAPD needs.

“It beats sitting home watching the grass grow.”