THOUSAND OAKS : Sheriff’s Volunteers to Help Write Tickets

The 23 community members who have volunteered to help Thousand Oaks deputies with paperwork and patrols will be allowed to write parking tickets, the City Council has decided.

Starting June 5, the Volunteers In Policing will help deputies perform some of their more mundane tasks, including ticketing. The program is designed to let sworn officers spend additional time on work such as investigations. The council voted unanimously Tuesday to permit the volunteers to issue parking tickets.

Driving two marked cars, volunteers will patrol city neighborhoods, checking the homes of vacationing residents and looking for any activity that might require police response. They will ticket illegally parked cars spotted during the patrols.

Each of the volunteers, ranging in age from 27 to over 70, has agreed to work two six-hour shifts each week. for the department. They will be equipped with uniforms and badges, but not guns. Sgt. Jeff Matson said the volunteers must stay clear of dangerous situations.

Matson said the program may train additional volunteers, but not yet. “We have a lot of people who want to volunteer, but we want to focus on these 23 first,” he said.