Volunteers deserve credit
Re “Shining the badge,” editorial, July 26
As a volunteer professional service responder (PSR) for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, I can say that your depiction of the civilian volunteers as unhelpful is without merit.
About 400 PSRs donated nearly 16,000 hours of time to the department and to the communities in Orange County last year, with some of us donating hundreds of hours per year.
This past winter, two lost hikers were found because these “civilian volunteers, few of whom actually helped the department,” left their families at 8 p.m. to spend the next 18 hours searching for them.
As PSRs, we donate our time, without pay or recognition, because we have a desire to give to our communities.
I don’t argue that there may have been a small minority who tarnished the image of the rest of us, but to use your broad brush and state that most do little for the community is tantamount to stating that most newspaper journalists are plagiarists.
Kenneth S. Cheng
Laguna Hills
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