“Geezers on Patrol”: How a Group of San Antonio Seniors Are Helping Keep Their Neighborhood Safe
San Antonio residents are finding unique ways to bolster community safety, and a dedicated group of seniors in Steubing Ranch are leading the charge through the Citizens on Patrol (COP) program.
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Two men in navy polo shirts ease a black-and-white Crown Victoria through the quiet streets of a Northeast Side subdivision. At first glance, the car resembles a San Antonio Police unit – spotlight, push bumper, and a red and blue light bar are all present. But this vehicle belongs to the neighborhood, driven by 78-year-old Howard McClelland, a retired pharmacist, and his companion, 80-year-old Tom Suk, a retired Iowa newspaperman who spent three decades covering police and fire incidents. Both are veterans, having served in the Army and Navy respectively, and now dedicate their free time to slowly patrolling the streets of Steubing Ranch as part of San Antonio’s Citizens on Patrol Program, serving as extra “eyes and ears” for the police.
The Citizen on Patrol (COP) program is a community-based crime watch initiative where volunteers receive training to observe and report suspicious activity to emergency services. Participation requires an application and completion of a four-hour training course before coordinating patrols with fellow COP graduates in their area.
“We’re a mobile neighborhood watch,” Suk explained as they passed the community park. “We observe, we report. If we have problems, we call SAPD. That’s it. We’re not police — we don’t go looking for confrontation.”
Ricardo Guzman, a public information officer for the San Antonio Police Department, affirmed the program’s value. “These kinds of programs, the COP programs, assist our officers with deterring crime [which] alleviates our workload to be able to focus on the areas that need more assistance. It’s a great program,” he stated.
The Steubing Ranch COP unit stands out for its exceptional commitment. With a roster of 17 members in a community of roughly 900 to 1,000 homes, the majority are military veterans ranging in age from 78 to 86.
“Our leader is 86. I’m 80. He’s the baby, he’s 79,” Suk joked, gesturing toward McClelland, who quickly corrected him. “Actually, I told you wrong, I’m only 78,” McClelland said with a laugh. “We actually thought about changing it from COP to GOP — Geezers on Patrol.”
The unit members personally fund their branded navy polos, hats, and khaki pants. Their patrol car, a retired 2009 SAPD Crown Victoria, was purchased in 2017 through donations from neighborhood residents. The volunteers cover the costs of gas, insurance, and maintenance through their own funds and recurring fundraising efforts.
“We’re so proud that we are backed by our citizens,” Suk said. “We’re out here shaking a red can sometimes two times a year, and they hold events for us.”
Their approach is methodical rather than dramatic. Patrols occur at irregular times – from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., early mornings, or even 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. – partly due to volunteers’ schedules and partly to keep potential criminals guessing.
“It kind of keeps the bad guys off-balance if they don’t know when we’re going to patrol. And because they do talk to each other, and they know we patrol here,” McClelland explained. “We just drive around the neighborhood, and this unit itself, as well as the patrol, is a deterrent.”
During their patrols, they cover the main Steubing Ranch neighborhood and a smaller adjoining area known as “Little Steubing Ranch.” They watch for open garage doors late at night, porch pirates during the holidays, mail theft from cluster mailboxes, after-hours activity at the community swimming pool and park, and report issues like faulty streetlights, water leaks, or infrastructure problems to city departments.
“It’s somewhat ironic, though: This is a 440 [model] with a turbo [engine] and we spend most of our time on Knollcreek driving at 20 miles an hour,” Suk chuckled. “Or we’re driving around here at 30 miles an hour.”
Their presence has occasionally contributed to significant cases. In 2018, the group invested in game cameras to monitor the 26 mailbox clusters in the subdivision. While the cameras proved finicky and expensive, they successfully captured the license plate of a mail thief.
“We managed to get a good plate number from this one. They’re not the best from trying to read plates. We got lucky with that one, though,” Suk said. “We finally had to give up on that program, though. The cameras weren’t that good.”
That license plate led to the arrest of a dozen individuals involved in a major mail theft ring operating out of Floresville, with authorities recovering “bags and bags of mail.”
In another instance, their actions were life-saving. Bruce Campbell, the unit’s longtime coordinator – and the namesake of the neighborhood park – was driving through the area after a patrol when he was flagged down by someone concerned about an injured man lying near his lawnmower.
“Bruce thought maybe the lawnmower threw a rod, because the man was bleeding heavily from the leg,” Suk recalled. “He went to stop the bleeding, looked up and there was a woman standing in the doorway with a gun. She’d shot her husband.”
Campbell used his military training to control the bleeding until paramedics arrived, Suk said. “And everybody said he’d save that man’s life. He would have bled out. He actually got an award for it.”
Campbell received the Compassionate San Antonian award from then-District 10 City Councilman Clayton Perry in 2020 for his heroic actions.
Now 86, Campbell has stepped down as coordinator, passing the responsibility to McClelland.
Despite their enjoyment, McClelland and Suk acknowledge their time with the unit is finite. While they joke about being “Geezers on Patrol,” they recognize the underlying concern: the program’s current success relies on the dedication of a small group of retirees. They hope to attract younger volunteers to ensure its continuation.
“We do this as much as we can. We would like to be out here more,” McClelland said. “We would like to have younger people join the program. We don’t seem to have a lot of luck with that right now.”
Suk nodded in agreement. “Yeah, but people raising a family and working, how can they get out from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m.? They can’t do it. I know I couldn’t do this when I was working.”
The San Antonio Police Department is actively seeking to expand the COP program, holding its first training class at the new St. Mary’s Street substation in October. The inaugural class attracted only three participants: a semi-retired attorney, a police academy hopeful, and a student pursuing a career in law enforcement.
Officer Jairo Sanchez, the San Antonio Fear Free Environment officer for the substation, briefed attendees on the program’s fundamentals, from observing and reporting issues to knowing when to contact emergency services. The session was designed to provide a clear understanding of how residents could participate in neighborhood-level patrols.
Back in the Crown Vic, McClelland and Suk remain committed to patrolling as long as they can, continuing their familiar routes at a steady 30 mph, waving to neighbors, and embracing their moniker as “Geezers on Patrol.”
Their work may not be glamorous, they say, but it contributes to the safety and well-being of their community.
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