On Patrol ~ By, John Howsden

On Patrol

By John Howsden

After putting in over twenty-eight years in the field of education, the lion’s share of which was in adult education, Ed Anderson retired. Moving to Copperopolis from Tracy, Ed fulfilled one of his dreams of buying some property and building a log cabin. After being a school principal and a home builder, he decided to look around for something less stressful to do, so he joined the Sheriff Department as a volunteer deputy.

With a smile on his face, Ed said, “The similarity between being a principal and being a deputy is you’re always dealing with people that complain or have a problem.” Part of the duties of a volunteer deputy is to staff the Copperopolis substation at the Lake Tulloch shopping center. A sampling of the problems showing up there is people wanting to report crimes, asking for directions or phone numbers. Often people will come in with lost property such as license plates, weapons or drugs. When the problem exceeds the volunteer’s authority, they refer the people to the Sheriff’s Office in San Andreas.

When not working in the office, Ed is out on patrol in his old, striped down police car with 200,000 miles under its belt. Even though Ed’s car is long in the tooth, it’s not an issue since most of his cruising is at 15 mph. Although it doesn’t have any red lights or siren, it is equipped with a radio, amber lights and wig-wag headlights. The trunk is stocked with electronic flashers, orange cones, a slow/stop hand held sign and a first aid kit.

While cruising his beat at a blistering speed of 15 mph, Ed checks out his beat for suspicious cars, broken windows, and vandalism, or meth dumps— debris from methadone labs; an abundance of broken bottles is a sign of such a dump. “After you work an area long enough, you know what should be here and what shouldn’t,” said Ed.

To do their job, volunteer deputies get ample training, including radio procedure, first aid, CPR, drivers training and traffic control. Additional training is offered such as bomb and drug recognition. Ed isn’t a newbie around things that blow up. Ed did twenty years in the military, starting out working ordinance in the Air Force in 1965 in a far off land called Viet Nam.

Although most people refer to this immediate area as Copperopolis, the Sheriff’s Department refers to it as beat “B” and it’s big. It stretches from Murphy’s to Jenny Lind and reaches across to both county lines. Deputy volunteers are not sworn personnel and therefore do not carry guns, but they serve a vital role of being the eyes and ears of the department and the community in this vast area. They do vacation home checks for up to thirty days. Some of their annual duties are foot patrol at the county fair, and traffic control at special events. Spur of the moment duties include assisting at traffic accidents, searching for lost children and serving civil papers—foreclosure notices and wage garnishments. 

With a few exceptions, people appreciate seeing the police car in the neighborhood. “People wave us down and thank us for patrolling,” Ed said. Currently there are six volunteer deputies working beat B, and they enjoy meeting people and helping out where they can. “You get use to working with people. Some conversations are good and some aren’t,” according to Ed. But in a time when resources are spread thin, it helps having the extra help that the volunteers provide. The next time you see a police car with sheriff volunteers boldly written on its side zipping by your house at 15 mph, feel free to flag down the driver with the silver hair and chat with him for awhile. 

Photo by John Howsden