VALUED HELP—Jean Luttringer spends about 10 to 15 hours a month as a volunteer for the Simi Valley Police Department. Volunteers give tours, answer phones, handle paperwork and perform a variety of other duties. They’ll soon be asked to do more. WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers Volunteers at the Simi Valley Police Department will soon be shouldering additional responsibilities, part of a strategy to free up more time for regular officers to fight crime.

The recent contract between the city and the police union includes several new provisions, but one of the most significant is the increased discretion given to department managers to assign nonemergency calls or special details to trained civilian employees, volunteers and reserve officers rather than to active-duty cops.

Sgt. Dwight Thompson, who heads up SVPD’s volunteer and reserve officer programs, said the reason behind the change is not to supplant what officers are currently doing but to allow them to make better use of their work days.

Niels Winther Reserve officer “If we can really open up our minds and be progressive and allow the police officers to do police work and utilize our other laborers to do the non-emergency things, I think it would expand our services,” he said.

News of an increased role has been well-received by volunteers, said Simi resident and retiree Jean Luttringer, a volunteer at the station for two years.

“I think anybody that is a volunteer would be pleased to be able to help out even more,” he said.

There are three categories of volunteers. Basic volunteers perform general administrative duties and lead tours at the station or they work as a Citizen on Patrol, driving around town doing vacation checks, running equipment to officers in the field and serving as an extra set of eyes and ears.

Reserve officers function much like regular police officers. They must attend a law enforcement academy and complete field training, and they carry a badge and a gun. Reserves commit at least 20 hours a month to patrolling the streets in black-and-white vehicles and backing up full-time officers on calls for service.

Civilian employees assist with parking enforcement, traffic control and detours, staffing the front desk and documenting minor criminal incidents.

Under the new contract, workers in each of these categories will be able to do more to help the department. This is especially true of the basic volunteers, who will be able to help out at special events, direct traffic at accidents or road closures, issue parking citations or take reports for minor incidents where no suspect information is available.

Another reason for giving more work to volunteers is purely fiscal, as the city hopes to reduce the amount spent on overtime for regular officers.

According to Assistant City Manager Dan Paranick, during fiscal year 2008-09, $2.6 million was spent for about 41,000 hours of overtime. That means the city paid an average of $63.41 to officers for each hour of overtime.

He estimated that transferring more responsibilities to the volunteers would, in the short term, save about $67,500, or 1,160 hours.

“That’s a very conservative estimate because the department has to develop these programs . . . and as that develops over the coming years we expect that the savings will increase,” Paranick said.

But Paranick said increasing efficiency and cost savings is not the only benefit of the expansion, noting that more volunteers mean more resources on the streets to address public safety issues or even natural disasters.

It will also give officers more time to focus on real emergencies instead of getting tied up in mundane or routine tasks.

“It’s all about freeing up the officers to do what’s more appropriate, what they’re trained to do,” Chief of Police Mike Lewis said.

However, at least one person has expressed concern about handing over more duties to volunteers. Detective Bill Daniels, president of the police union, is worried that the level of service could be reduced.

“I think if somebody calls the police for a police matter, there is somewhat of an expectation that you are going to get a police officer . . . I just hope that when it’s picked and chosen what items to do that with, it doesn’t result in lesser service for the citizens,” he said.

Luttringer sees the change as only positive. As a volunteer, he said, he’s never received anything but respect from the public.

“I think it’s really important to understand that we are not looking to do (the officers’) jobs,” he said. “But if we can do something to allow them to do their jobs even better, then I think that’s important.”

Niels Winther, a reserve officer for 20 years, agreed, saying that more volunteers will only improve responsiveness to the community and consequently the image of the department in the eyes of the public. Plus, he said, more bodies on the street would act as a crime deterrent.

Police officials said more training is needed before the volunteers would actually be released into the field.

“We’re not ready tomorrow to send out all the volunteers and say go direct traffic,” Thompson said. “As far as implementing some of the things in the contract, it’s going to take some time to prepare people to do that.”

Along with expanding the duties of volunteers, the department would like the current volunteer base of 19 to double in number.

The once-robust reserve officer program had 20 officers when Winther entered it in 1990, but it’s since dwindled to two. Thompson said he’d be thrilled if he could get 10 to 12 more reserves to sign on this year.

For Winther, becoming a reserve officer fulfilled a lifelong dream of working in law enforcement. And as a Simi resident and business owner, he’s glad to be able to help protect the city where he lives and works.

“You really get a chance to give back and that was my motivation from day one . . . to give back to the community and to provide a role model for my family and my children,” Winther said.

For more information on the department’s volunteer programs, or to request an application, e-mail volunteer coordinator Janet Seghi at jseghi@simivalley.org or call (805) 583-6927.