Steve Whitney has accomplished much in life but at the age of 78 he still wants to make the world a better place.

For about 20 hours each month the veteran and former Madera County deputy sheriff helps the Ceres Police Department as a member of VIPS, Volunteers in Public Safety. He was recruited by then Chief Rick Collins who learned of Whitney’s law enforcement background during his service on the Ceres Beautification Committee.

VIPS members – of which there are currently eight – perform enforcement tasks to free up the time of sworn peace officers. They often cruise through parking lots looking to see if drivers are illegally parking in handicapped stalls.

Directly overseeing the VIPS operation is Sgt. Aaron Piñon with Lt. Jeff Godfrey overall responsible.

Two recent VIPs, college students Andrew Fuggett and James Arbaugh, decided to volunteer since they have interest in law enforcement careers. Angelina Woods and Ibraham Yosufzai are other volunteers.

For 11 years and about to retire, Peggy Cole has been a VIPS member who has been handling the Evidence & Property Room.

Patty Godfrey, the wife of Ceres Police Lt. Jeff Godfrey, also is a volunteer who assists in administrative matters.

Another retiree, Lou Toste has been with VIPS for about 13 or 14 years.

Whitney began volunteering five and a half years ago.

I had a chance to ride along with Whitney last Thursday to see what his job entails. The first place he normally checks out is the parking lot of the Walmart Supercenter. He drives around slowly with an eye for cars in handicapped zones which aren’t readily displaying handicapped placards on the rear view mirror. When he sees one he gets out to check for a placard which often is either missing or maybe lying on the dash. If there is a violation he will leave the citation.

Often in the process of writing a citation the driver walks up and he goes soft on them, writing “WARNING” across the citation.

“I do a lot of warnings,” said Whitney. “This is a part public relations position so if we have the opportunity to not write the citation and do a warning or a verbal warning that is preferable.”

Seconds later he spots a license plate with two date tags with a 2025 tag on the right and a 2027 tag covering the month on the left side of the plate. Whitney notes it is a violation of

Vehicle Code Section 5204.

“I could write a ticket. It’s a $76 fine. That doesn’t seem quite fair for being stupid in a public place, so I have the opportunity to write a courtesy notice. So I do a lot of that because this job is also public relations rather than being hard-nosed.”

Whitney said that’s how he operated as a sworn officer. His leniency flies in the face of the commonly held public perception that officers have a quota of tickets to write to bolster city revenues. Not true, said Whitney.

“I can’t tell you how many times people would say, ‘Oh, now you’ve got your quota?’”

His reply, “No, we don’t have a quota; I can write as many as I want,” would often shut them up.

As he is out driving around, Whitney also spots abandoned vehicles, typically obvious because of their dirtiness, cobwebs or weeds beneath or flat tires.

“There are some things that I’m allowed to do under the law, and some things I can’t do. I don’t have the authority to actually tow the vehicle. I have the authority to do everything up to that point. A sworn officer has to do the final paperwork.”

He often starts the process by reporting an abandoned vehicle directly to the department’s Abandoned Vehicle Unit or report it on the MyCity app. Any citizen can report an abandoned vehicle on the same app.

“It takes a lot of paperwork to get a car off the street. It’s not as simple as what it might think. I also have the ability to write a citation for the vehicle being there over 72 hours.”

He also uses the app to report times when he sees a pothole or a public nuisance.

According to Whitney, VIPS are encouraged to not approach an occupied car to cite.

“I have no offensive weapons, and so people contact is a danger. So you never know about people.”

He informs me that he is wearing a bulletproof vest because verbiage on his uniform can be misconstrued to read he is a Ceres Police which could make him the target. He knows from experience because he was once shot at by a drive-by shooters when he was working for Los Angeles Police Department.

“I’m a little guy, okay? I’m now 5’ 7”. I used to be 5’ 8”, so I’m firmly planted on the ground, don’t get me wrong, but the point being, I try to use my brains more than my brawn. It’s not worth getting hurt over or whatever. I don’t get paid to wrestle people to the ground and arrest them.”

However, Whitney said at times he will roll to the scene of an officer making contact with someone who might be trouble and watch from a distance. He said he will step in to assist if he needed help to restrain a suspect.

Whitney’s wife of 36 years, Cela, is not particularly thrilled about his volunteerism.

“There have been occasions when she says, ‘Let me get this straight. You put on a bulletproof vest and go to a job you don’t get paid for. How does this work?’ She knows I can’t sit still. She knows I’m a Type A personality. She knows I like to help other people so she’s okay with it. I mean, she’s not thrilled. She certainly doesn’t want to go to a funeral.”

Whitney has had his share of intense drama as a peace officer. On August 16, 1975 he was part of a SWAT team operation dealing with a suspect who shot and killed his partner, Deputy Steve Lindblom, 26. Whitney was one of the officers who shot and killed the suspect, George Walker, 59.

Whitney also wrote the initial report on the celebrated July 15, 1976 Chowchilla bus kidnapping incident. He was the deputy who found the bus abandoned in a slough not far from the rural kidnapping site. All 24 kids and the bus driver were later found physically unharmed but psychologically scarred.

As an officer Whitney saved lives like the time he did CPR on a lifeless child who was overcome in a home where a gas-burning water heater was improperly vented. Two persons in the house had died before he arrived.

Outside of Mae Hensley Jr. High School, Whitney stops to remove a yard sale sign attached to a utility pole, something forbidden by the Ceres Municipal Code. If the address is listed he’ll go to yard sale home and politely ask the occupant to remove the signs once the sale is over even though technically they are in violation.

“Every single person I’ve asked to do that has taken the signs down. So again, I’m not being the hard a--, I’m being more PR person about that.”

Even those kinds of visits can be risky. Once he stopped to ask to see the yard sale permit and the man verbally attacked him and threatened him to where an officer was needed.

Another task of VIPS may also include serving subpoenas issued by the District Attorney’s Office to call witnesses to testify in trials. On the way for another attempt to serve at a home on Evans Road, Whitney notices a Mitsubishi Lancer with missing license plates parked outside of an apartment complex. He stops and radios in the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) only to learn the car had a suspended registration. As he wrote up a citation the young female owner came out to explain her unfortunate dilemma with a dealer who sold her a car with a failing transmission. Since she had no way to drive to Stockton to pick up the plates from the dealer, the car sits on the street unattended and unlawful.

Whitney assured her that he wouldn’t fine her but issue a warning to get things taken care of.

“She was being reasonable about it. I’ve gotten along very well as a policeman and a volunteer, I always give people respect and the benefit of the doubt to begin with. I’ve gotten in very few beefs because of attitude.

Persons who have given thoughts of joining VIPS may start by emailing the unit’s supervisor, Sgt. Aaron Pinon at aaron.pinon@ci.ceres.ca.us