{"id":228369,"date":"2015-10-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/police-rsvp-program-makes-a-big-difference\/"},"modified":"2015-10-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-10-16T07:00:00","slug":"police-rsvp-program-makes-a-big-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/police-rsvp-program-makes-a-big-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Police RSVP program makes a big difference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Doug Curlee | Editor en general<\/p>\n

YANA program keeps eyes on those who need human contact<\/strong><\/p>\n

Billy Martin lives alone in Del Cerro.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s pretty much confined to a wheelchair.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s almost totally alone in the world, with only a sister to visit him.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s 90.<\/p>\n

Billy is 92.<\/p>\n

Think about that, and think about the fact that, were it not for the San Diego Police Department\u2019s Retired Senior Volunteer Patrol, Martin would likely have no one to talk to.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/a>
Police volunteer Wayne Findlay (r) sits with Billy Martin. (Photo by Doug Curlee)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But he does have someone, at least three times a week. On this day, RSVP members Julie Dahlin and Wayne Findlay checked in on Martin, just to visit, and to check on his welfare. Things like making sure the stove is off, checking to see if Martin\u2019s medication is handy for him. In other words, just be there for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll have to excuse how my voice sounds\u201d said Martin, who is a veteran of both WWII and Korea. \u201cI\u2019m just out of practice. I don\u2019t get much chance to talk to anyone these days.\u201d<\/p>\n

After chatting for a while, Dahlin and Findlay had other stops to make. It was easy to see that Martin really would have liked to talk more, but there will be another visit in two days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see so many people like Billy,\u201d Dahlin said. \u201cThey just don\u2019t get the human connection most people really want and need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giving seniors much-needed human companionship is what the You Are Not Alone (YANA) program is all about.<\/p>\n

But YANA is only one of a whole litany of tasks the RSVP members perform for the police department and the public.<\/p>\n

Dr. Dennis Brown is the director of the RSVP program at the department\u2019s Eastern Division, which covers the areas usually covered by this newspaper.<\/p>\n

\u201cDepartment-wide, we have about 400 members in the RSVP program, but we need a whole lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve no doubt seen RSVP cars and teams. You\u2019ll see them driving through parking lots at shopping centers, maybe writing tickets to people illegally parked in handicapped zones, maybe helping control traffic at accident scenes, and many other duties that help free up sworn police officers for the real demand on their time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese volunteers are not police officers,\u201d Brown is quick to point out. \u201cThey are another set of eyes and ears for the department. They are in radio contact with the police dispatchers, but their duty is only to observe and report.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone 50 years of age, retired or semi-retired, with a valid California driver\u2019s license and at least two to three days a month to volunteer their time is welcome to apply. You\u2019d need to spend one week at the Police Academy, learning the ropes, and what you can and cannot do as a volunteer.<\/p>\n

Dahlin and Findley get a tremendous sense of fulfillment, just doing things like the YANA visit with Martin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s worth it,\u201d Dahlin said. \u201cEvery time.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Por Doug Curlee | Editor en general<\/p>","protected":false},"author":766,"featured_media":228270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11558","_seopress_titles_title":"Police RSVP program makes a big difference","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11558,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-mission-times-courier","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/766"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}