Deputy’s Commitment Is Called the Key to Success : Crime: Max Pina, who has patrolled Fillmore for 25 years, says helping solve community’s problems ‘is a victory to me.’

Max Pina is a man with a mission.

Five days a week he mounts a bicycle for a three-hour ride through north Fillmore.

He shakes hands with residents, listens to their complaints and advises them on how to make their lives a little better.

A Ventura County sheriff’s deputy, Pina, 50, played a key role in making the Ventura County Sheriff’s Storefront in Fillmore a reality and helping to rid what Pina described as Fillmore’s most crime-ridden neighborhood of gangs.

“The success of the storefront in Fillmore can be attributed to many people, but it has been Max who has poured his life into that community,” said Ventura County Sheriff Larry Carpenter. “It’s deputies like him who make a difference.”

Pina is motivated in part by tragedies from his own past: In 1977, he lost a teen-age daughter in a car accident. In 1986, another teen-age daughter died when her heart stopped after she inhaled liquid paper.

Since then, Pina has dedicated himself to doing what he can to keep teen-agers from becoming gang members, drug addicts and victims of crime.

“(The storefront) has been a dream to me,” said Pina, who has patrolled the streets of Fillmore for 25 years. “Anything that I can do to help a kid stay out of trouble and keep parents from going through the pain that I have, is a victory to me.”

Last September, Pina was assigned to Fillmore’s new sheriff’s storefront, where he serves as community relations officer.

He works at the storefront Tuesdays through Saturdays. When he isn’t walking a neighborhood beat or cruising through Lemon Way on his bicycle, he is in the small storefront comforting a parent, helping residents resolve a dispute or just chatting with the many youngsters who stop by the substation.

“He is extremely dedicated to this community,” said Bennie Alfaro, who has lived in the area for 18 years. “He takes care of everyone in this community. I’ve seen him helping couples stay together and (preventing) kids from running away from home. He is like the old-fashioned priest.”

It’s because of Pina’s commitment to the community that Alfaro decided to stay in the neighborhood.

“I was going to sell my house and leave,” she said, standing by her front door, which still displays two bullet holes from a drive-by shooting. “But now, I’m staying.”

Pina says his job combines two things he’s always wanted to do: helping youngsters and working in law enforcement.

“I’ve always wanted to help people and I thought law enforcement was the way,” Pina said.

A native of Oxnard, Pina lived his first 13 years in La Colonia. He attended Santa Paula High School and became a reserve police officer at age 21.

After graduating from the police academy in Ventura in 1971, he went to work as a police officer in Fillmore. He has been stationed in the community ever since. In 1981, Pina moved to Fillmore with his wife, Susan, and their three children.

“I love this town and I want to work here until I retire,” Pina said. “I’m loyal to the people of Fillmore. This town is like a big family.”