Sheriff to Seek More Paramedics of the Spirit

Carl Schiefer spent part of a long night by the roadside picking up scraps among the wreckage of a car. Two high school boys died in an accident a year ago in San Clemente, and strewn along the road were their personal belongings, fragments of the lives they had led.

Schiefer later brought those items with him when he and a coroner’s official went to notify the teenagers’ families. As a volunteer for the Sheriff’s Department Chaplain Program, these sad tasks are his duty. He and a handful of other chaplains bring comfort by doing uncomfortable things, from consoling grieving parents in the middle of the night to counseling battered spouses on how to take the first steps toward ending their abuse.

Sheriff’s officials believe the program is so successful that they are expanding it countywide, more than doubling the number of volunteer chaplains to 32. Officials said they hope the expanded program will foster a more humane environment for citizens and the officers who protect them.

“We call ourselves spiritual paramedics,” Schiefer said. “We’re not there for long-term solutions, but we will get involved in the immediate issues when we’re dispatched to a call.”

The program started in the early 1980s, with a few specially trained chaplains attending to the crises that arise from crimes and accidents in San Clemente. Their presence helps victims and frees deputies to concentrate on law enforcement, officials said. For two weeks at a time, 24 hours a day, the chaplains are on call to respond to problems.

“It’s not the fact that chaplains send a religious message, but that they’re somebody who can sit down [and use] skills to counsel all people through traumatic periods in their lives,” Lt. Frank Lisanti said.

Chaplains may be of any religious denomination, but all must be ordained in their church and have training in grief counseling. After an oral examination, extensive background checks and a 40-hour training course, they enter a probationary period teamed up with an experienced chaplain.

Although they often give comfort to crime victims, they sometimes console the officers. After the San Clemente accident last year, deputies at the scene grieved over the deaths and felt helpless. Lisanti said the deputies asked to meet with the chaplains in a group to share their feelings and work through the guilt.

“What we’ve found is that they’ve become a sounding board for the deputies, getting rid of the anguish and grief they’ve seen on the job,” Lisanti said.

A chaplain is effective at consoling a deputy because they consider each other colleagues, he said. Chaplains are trained in basic policing skills, and, as a result, deputies and chaplains watch each other’s backs.

At least once a month, a uniformed chaplain rides with a deputy on his calls, watching the hands of a suspect during a traffic stop to make sure he doesn’t reach for a weapon, looking for stolen vehicles and sometimes even chasing down criminals.

Carl Stone, a head chaplain, once found himself alone face to face with a man accused of attempted rape.

Stone wasn’t wearing his bulletproof vest that day, and chaplains aren’t armed. Luckily, neither was the accused rapist. Apparently drunk, the man assumed a martial arts stance.

“Frankly, I couldn’t think what else to do, so I say, ‘What’s your name?’ ” The man dropped his hands. He had no weapon, and Stone was able to keep him occupied until the deputy arrived.

“God was with me that day,” Stone said.

Part of a chaplain’s job is to report back to the deputies who refer cases to them.

Most deputies want to improve the lives of people they serve, Stone said. “Not just by catching crooks,” he said. “There’s a more altruistic goal there, and that’s helping people, making life better for them.

“When a chaplain reports back,” he said, “the deputy knows that maybe the referral found hope, maybe they found counseling, maybe they found a rehabilitation program, maybe they’re seeing a grief counselor to deal with their loss.”