Citizens On Patrol

(Originally published in the November 16, 2004 of the Hesperia Star.)

Jay Earl and her partner were on patrol when they spotted something strange.

A 2-year-old child was wandering the middle of a sleepy residential road in Hesperia -- the same sort of roads some residents like to race down in excess of 55 miles per hour.

Earl and her partner stopped the car, and went over to the child when they spotted, in the distance, the child's father, searching frantically for his missing little girl, who had wandered out of the back yard when he'd turned his back momentarily.

"He was in such a panic that he hadn't even called the police yet."

It was an atypical day for Earl, who has only been a member of the Citizens On Patrol force since November 1, when the latest class of volunteers graduated.

"It's a volunteer program for any individual 18 years or older who wants to give something back to the community," said Roxanne Walker, the Public Information Officer for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department's Hesperia station and the local coordinator for the COP program. "They have a lot of duties. They will respond to a traffic accident and set up the cones."

In Hesperia, where budgetary concerns mean the city does not have the number of deputies the sheriff's department might want, the COP volunteers fill in the gaps, doing duties that don't absolutely need a deputy to do. The COP volunteers do patrols to keep an eye on the homes of residents on vacation, transfer department vehicles between the station and repair facilities in Huntington Beach and other miscellaneous support activities.

Since January, the station's four dozen volunteers (as compared to a staff of 27 deputies) have logged 14,167 man-hours, doing support work and patrolling the streets and parks of Hesperia.

"They are ... the eyes and ears of this department," Walker said.

The volunteers are required to put in eight hours a month, although some put in more than 100, she said, and some have been members of the program for a decade.

"There's a place for everyone. Some of the younger ones are going to school," Walker said. "We had widow and widowers who are retirees who want something to do.

"We try to be wherever they're needed."

When the Hesperia Recreation and Park District closed down its ranger program, members of the COP program took to patrolling the parks.

During last year's fires, the volunteers stayed with evacuees, keeping things under control while deputies were out on the streets.

"During the fires, our volunteers were at the high schools 24/7, helping to evacuate people." That week alone, the volunteers put in 760 man-hours, even as the fires threatened their own homes and communities.

So far, Earl had only logged 24 hours total as a COP since graduation last week.

"My typical days have been playing musical cars at the car repair," Earl said. Patrol cars were being taken in to have work done on their radar guns.

Earl is a former deputy sheriff from Maryland now attending law school. Her classmate in the latest graduating class, Harry Davis, is a retired Mount San Antonio College employee who has a simple reason for joining the program.

"I know it sounds like a cliche, but giving back to the community. I really love Hesperia," Davis said.

"The more eyes and ears, the better. ... I saw the articles in the paper, and said 'this is the thing for me.'

"It gives me something to do, keeps me busy," he said. "I really think it's helpful for the community."

Although the COP volunteers are out on the streets (normally in specially marked cars, but sometimes in regular department cruisers), the department draws a clear line between what volunteers and deputies can or should do.

"We don't want them to put themselves in any danger," Walker said. "They're there as the eyes and ears of the department."

COP volunteers have spotted stolen cars, individuals matching suspects' description and speeders and drunk drivers.

Although they can't make arrests themselves, "help is just a radio call away," Earl said.

This half-a-loaf nature for the COPs -- a bit more than civilians, but certainly not deputies -- suits them just fine, they say.

"I'm good where I'm at. I don't want any more responsibility than I've got," new COP volunteer Soulae Sensenbach said. By day, she works at Serrano High School in Phelan as a secretary. "I plan to put in at least five hours a week, plus anything they have on weekends."

Walker recently served as the host for the new class of COP volunteers, who held classes in the Percy Bakker Senior Center, among other venues, over six weeks this autumn. In total, 27 new COP volunteers were inducted from all over the High Desert.

The trainees learned radio codes, received automotive training, learned how a dispatch center works, learned California penal codes and studied CPR.

The classes rotate locations, and the next COP class will be trained this spring in Apple Valley.

"I never knew it existed until [Sensenbach's husband] got involved in it. I think a lot of people don't know anything about it," Sensenbach said. "It's very eye-opening as far as getting involved in the community."

Beau Yarbrough can be reached at beau@hesperiastar.com or 956-7108.