Seniors : Helping hands : LAGUNA BEACH : They’re Unarmed and on Most-Wanted List

One year into the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, the number of participants in the police auxiliary program has doubled and their duties are being expanded.

The program, which enlists the skills and energies of older members of the community, began in January with eight volunteers, including Henry Handy, in his mid-90s. Today, 16 men and women are performing police-related duties, freeing sworn officers to handle other tasks.

“I don’t know how you can put a value on it,” Deputy Chief Jim Spreine said. “The program is a tremendous service to the community.”

The volunteers do clerical work, write parking tickets, help with vacation house checks and Neighborhood Watch duties, and set up the traffic radar trailer on city streets to remind drivers how fast they are traveling.

Senior volunteers, who do not carry weapons, are described by officers as the department’s “eyes, ears and helping hands.” After logging 3,630 hours through November, Spreine said, the volunteers have become a part of “this police family.”

In 1996, Spreine said, the volunteers will also begin helping the city’s municipal services department. If, for example, a parking sign has been obstructed by a resident’s shrubbery, the volunteer will visit the resident and ask him or her to remove the obstruction, he said.

Spreine, who directs the program, said he would like to expand the number of participants to 20.

Information: (714) 497-0382.