Countywide : Senior Citizens Tackle Patrol Duties

Herman Muhltelder spends about 60 hours a month patrolling the streets, checking up on shut-ins, making friends with residents and writing parking citations.

Muhltelder, 71, a volunteer officer for the Fountain Valley Police Department, is one of hundreds of senior citizens who provide free services for more than a dozen law enforcement agencies throughout Orange County.

The Volunteer Center of Greater Orange County held a meeting at Santa Ana’s train depot Tuesday to talk about the various programs that use senior citizens for policing duties in an effort to encourage more police agencies to implement similar programs.

Senior citizens with RSVP, the Volunteer Center’s Retired Senior Volunteer Program, work for law enforcement agencies in Costa Mesa, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Irvine, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach and San Clemente. In addition, Anaheim, Fullerton and Garden Grove will soon implement the program, and other cities, including La Habra, La Palma, Orange, Dana Point and Stanton, have similar programs.

In San Juan Capistrano, 23 volunteers participate in the Associated Seniors Action Program. The group provides foot, van and bike patrols and makes reports of potential hazards. They call the Sheriff’s Department, which provides police services for the city, from their cellular phones whenever they spot suspicious activities and even inspect flood control channels.

“We’re a basic extension of the eyes and ears of the Sheriff’s Department,” said Shig Konishita, 59, a retired farmer who joined ASAP three months ago. “We do everything the sheriff’s (deputies) are too busy to do.”

Laurie Smith, who heads RSVP, said the senior citizens also provide services that might not otherwise be provided.

“There’s no way (police officers) can do it all, and rather than lose services, the seniors have been able to provide them,” she said. “These volunteers really care about their cities and that makes them great ambassadors and promoters of pride in their communities.”

Volunteer officers are mostly used for crowd and traffic control and are not allowed to carry weapons or make arrests.

“It’s important for us to make friends in the community,” said Beverly Burnett, 59, a volunteer in Fountain Valley. “We are older and not armed, so we aren’t threatening to anyone and we don’t come across as intimidating.”

Burnett, who has been a volunteer for the past four years, said she has helped staff sobriety checkpoints, made numerous house calls to check on homes that owners have left empty while on vacations and visited lonely invalids.

While most cities spend about $3,000 a year in training and uniforms for the volunteers, they save much more, officials said. Fountain Valley saves $200,000 a year and makes another $200,000 from revenue raised through citations written by the volunteers, Burnett said.

Yorba Linda used volunteer officers for crowd control in June during the Pat Nixon funeral at the Nixon library and saved the city $1,500 in overtime pay for officers.

Now Brea is seeking to use volunteers too, Brea Police Officer Kenneth J. Bradshaw said.

“Let’s face it,” he said. “We can no longer provide all the services we want to provide because of budget cuts. It’s time for volunteers.”