ANAHEIM : Officer’s Dream Rides on Ranch

Police Officer Chuck Erickson’s dream of helping delinquent boys is about as big as the whole outdoors--or, specifically, 160 acres of it.

Erickson, an avid horseman, has bought the property 10 miles outside Flagstaff, Ariz., where he hopes to open a ranch within two years. There, about 100 gang members and other troubled youths from Orange County and elsewhere in Southern California would learn discipline and responsibility while tending to sick and aged horses and raising livestock.

“I see the futility in so many of these young peoples’ lives, and the system we have now doesn’t seem to be helping them,” said Erickson, 39, who was a minister before becoming a police officer seven years ago.

For the last three years, he has been assigned to the city’s elementary schools, teaching classes as part of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE, program. And each semester, Erickson brings his horses to school to treat students to a riding demonstration.

“When the young people come out of Juvenile Hall, they are as bad or worse than when they went in,” he said. “I decided I wanted to use my talents to start (a) program that will affect lives.”

His boss, Sgt. Tom O’Donnell, said that if any officer can pull off such a project, it is Erickson.

“I don’t know what kind of street cop Erickson is--I assume he’s a good one--but I have never met a police officer better with children than him,” O’Donnell said. “He’s unbelievable. If this works out, it’s going to be because of him.”

Erickson, who lives on a Riverside County ranch with his wife and three children, envisions his Arizona ranch as a place where boys would live in homes of eight to 10 people.

Each home would be headed by a married couple who would oversee the boys they live with. Each boy would be responsible for nursing a broken-down racehorse donated by a Southern California track, or raising a cow, sheep or pig. The boys would also attend school.

To get the $80,000 to buy the ranch, Erickson refinanced his home. He hopes to get the $300,000 a year needed to run the ranch through donations and from state payments for taking care of children who are wards of the court.

“It’s my belief that a lot of these young men who are committing crimes and joining gangs have never had anybody care for them,” he said. “Giving them something to care for really opens them up to a lot of possibilities.”

Erickson said he came up with the idea for the ranch after reading a magazine article detailing an Illinois program in which hard-core adult prisoners work with animals on a farm.

“They found that these inmates, who never cared about anyone or anything in their lives, were saving up their money to buy treats for the horses rather than cigarettes or candy for themselves,” he said. “When I take my horses to the local schools, even the baddest guy will come up and laugh and giggle. These kids can be reached.”