Making a Difference : South Orange County: Seniors Team Up to Give Police a Hand

As they struggle to maintain basic services, local governments throughout California are coming with innovations to enhance them as well. Five cities in south Orange County that contract with the Sheriff’s Department have mobilized senior citizen volunteers to assist law enforcement in routine public safety duties. Volunteers between the ages of 50 and 80 who are in good health and have no criminal record are trained to perform a variety of nonhazardous duties. They are supplied with uniforms, vehicles and tools like cellular phones. The teams free up full-time officers for other law enforcement activities, help cities to augment police service without significant additional spending and offer seniors a chance to get involved in their communities. More than 130 senior volunteers contribute about 75,000 hours to police-related services throughout south Orange County each year.

RANGE OF DUTIES

The Sheriff’s Department works with each city to determine a senior volunteer team’s duties, which may include:

Parking Watch

Issue parking citations or warnings for handicapped, fire lane and meter violations, abandoned vehicles, expired registration and missing plates

Code Enforcement

Photograph and document graffiti or posted illegal signs for investigation and removal, monitor alleys for discarded furniture, report construction or other commercial activities conducted outside of legal hours

Community Support

Provide home visits to elderly and disabled shut-ins, bicycle registration, fingerprinting for school children, storm drain inspections

Traffic Support

Provide crowd and traffic control at intersections, special events or during emergencies

Crime Watch

Conduct residential and business security assessment, vacation home checks, foot and bicycle patrols in business and recreational areas, community crime prevention and Neighborhood Watch start-up meetings

Clerical Support

Log permits, assist with building inspection and city mapping, relieve switchboard operators

ONE PARTICIPANT’S EXPERIENCE

JOE TRIMM

68, Dana Point resident since 1985 and coordinator of Bicycle Patrol for the city’s Volunteer Interest Program for Seniors, retired in 1984 after working as a Rockwell International spacecraft test engineer for 37 years

I got acquainted with the program from a couple of deputies I met through the Neighborhood Watch program. I donate between 8 and 12 hours a week. We’re asked to donate six hours each week. We received classroom training that included police procedures, radio communications, CPR and first aid, and how to communicate with the public. We’re continually retrained and trained in other areas.

We always go out in pairs. We patrol the entire harbor area--beaches, businesses, parking lots--and try to be visible.

We don’t enforce the rules. We advise people of the rules. If people give us an argument, we immediately get on the radio and call for assistance and a deputy will show up and take care of things from there. We’re there to observe and report. We try not to get involved in discussions that might lead to a confrontation. And we’re trained to avoid it.

When I read that somebody robbed a bank and got away I feel terrible because he’s getting away with something and shouldn’t, and I like the good guys to win. If I can contribute in any way, observe something that is helpful to the police, I’ll feel that I’ve done a good deed.

The senior teams do a lot of chores that the city would normally have to pay for. I’d rather think that we’re not really saving the city money, but that we’re providing services that might not be offered at all.

QUOTE

“There’s nothing better we could have provided to the community. We could tell our residents that we caught every ax murderer in the world, and they’d say, ‘That’s nice, thanks, and could you have the senior volunteers help with traffic control at that intersection near my house where all that construction is going on?’ ”

--Response of an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy officer when asked the value residents place on senior volunteer team’s contributions

TO GET INVOLVED

For information, support or volunteer opportunities with police department senior volunteer programs in south Orange County, call: (714) 248-3517, Dana Point and San Juan Capistrano; (714) 362-4343, Laguna Niguel; (714) 365-8706, Mission Viejo; (714) 361-8226, San Clemente.