There is an inexpensive way to increase the effectiveness of Manteca Police.

And at the same time you can have a hand in improving Manteca’s esthetics.

Volunteer.

With as little as four hours a week you can:

*Free up highly trained police officers from being tied up with traffic control and crime scene preservation duties at major incidents for hours at a time.

*Help Manteca stay on top of graffiti eradication and reduce the time it lingers.

*Help the city take steps needed to retrieve abandoned vehicles.

*Make sure shopping carts don’t litter neighborhoods and streets.

*Serve as extra eyes for the police in school zones, commercial areas, and neighborhoods.

*Work to keep basketball hoops set up in streets where they create traffic and safety hazards.

 That’s just a partial list of the quality-of-life tasks that Manteca SHARP can — or could do — if they had the manpower.

“Could” do is the operative word.

Due to ranks that still haven’t recovered after taking a hit during the pandemic, Manteca SHARP has been forced to suspend their “extra eyes” patrols, keeping basketball hoops from being set up in the street  and shopping cart retrieval efforts.

They’ve also been forced to cut back on time dedicated to helping the city stay atop of graffiti.

The SHARP is  the adult volunteer unit with the Manteca Police Department.

In 2019 prior to the pandemic, they had almost 60 volunteers that devoted 10,300 hours to serving the community.

They essentially free up highly-trained police officers from required routine task to devote more time to patrol.

Those tasks range from delivering documents to the courts and other agencies to serving as traffic control at community event such as next week’s Fourth of July parade to documenting and making sure graffiti gets eradicated.

Since its inception on Sept. 3, 1991 the official name has been Seniors Helping Area Residents and Police. Today, based on its membership, it is really Serving & Helping Area Residents and Police given the minimum age to join is 40.

It requires being able to devote a minimum of four hours a week. Those four hours, according to SHARP Captain  Richard Silverman, are at the convenience of the volunteer.

The city will provide the uniform.

To give you an idea of how SHARP volunteers help improve Manteca Police response and presence in the community consider the role they played in two recent tragedies on East Yosemite Avenue. One was an apparent carjacking attempt that turned deadly and the other was a fatal crash involving a motorcycle traveling at a high rate of spend.

Police requested the SHARP’s Rapid Response Team — of which Silverman is a member — to assist with traffic control as well as crime scene preservation.

 The fatal accident — because it required a more thorough investigation and occurred on  a major street — needed significant traffic control.

Police required the service of five SHARP volunteers for 4½ hours before they were able to clear part of the area of the investigation. Of those, two remained on scene for another 1½ hours.

Without the SHARP volunteers, at least two officers would have been yanked from patrol or paid overtime to do basic traffic control.

Several SHARP volunteers securing the crime scene perimeter at the shooting also freed up two highly trained police officers from having to do it instead.

Those officers were freed up to handle patrol assignments —  and answer calls — elsewhere in Manteca while detectives handled the crime scene investigation.

The SHARP unit is down to 28 members. A more robust 50 would allow the volunteer unit to restore endeavors they have done for years that help improve the quality of life in Manteca.

It also will allow them to rather it back up graffiti abatement.

More SHARP volunteers

key to graffiti effort

Manteca for 28 years enjoyed the reputation as a virtually graffiti-free city.

That’s because instead of police officers or community service officers addressing graffiti when they had available time, the SHARP unit took the lead. Graffiti abatement because one of their signature priorities.

 It involves documenting  graffiti that is reported or they see except that along the freeway side of sound walls that Caltrans has jurisdiction over.

They  paint over graffiti on public or quasi-public property such as PG&E.

Private property graffiti is turned over to code enforcement for follow thorough.

But in cases where the property owner has given the police permission in advanced to do so, SHARP volunteers paint over the graffiti.

When SHARP was forced to suspend volunteer efforts during the pandemic, the graffiti problem  in Manteca exploded.

While it is better than it was in 2021, the graffiti eradication effort suffers from not having enough SHARP volunteers.

Silverman can’t stress enough the importance of robust graffiti abatement as well as some of the other endeavors the unit is prevented from performing due to the lack of manpower.

”It’s the broken  window  theory,” Silverman said.

The presence of graffiti triggers more graffiti. A broken window leads to trash to blight taking hold.

Information about joining the SHARP unit is available on the city’s website on the police department page or by calling 209-456-8240.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com