Chula Vista’s Senior Volunteer Patrol celebrated its 20-year anniversary last week.
Jack Mitchell has been a senior patrolman since the very beginning, with the last 18-years leading the program as director.
Now, at 86-years-old, Mitchell is handing over his ticket book to Dick Kiehl, who will succeed him when Mitchell retires Oct. 9.
Mitchell never wanted to be a Senior Volunteer Patrolman, but said rather the job chose him while he was on a Kentucky vacation with his wife.
“I called up the (police department) wanting a vacation check, and they said ‘We’re sorry, we don’t have (enough) officers anymore for that. How old are you?’ he said. “The next thing you know I’m being interviewed and 20 years later I’m still here.”
His move from the streets to the desk was one he did not want to make.
“I am absolutely the worst man for the job,” he said half-jokingly about being director. “I don’t like office work.”
Mitchell did not expect to be director but the job fell on his lap after a string of unusual circumstances.
The first director only served one year before he stepped down.
The second director died after months on the job.
That left Mitchell the next guy in charge.
“I was a victim of circumstance,” he said. “I came in, the guy died, nobody else was dumb enough to take this job,” he said.
Under his leadership, Mitchell brought vehicles on board. Before he said the volunteers would just walk down Third Avenue from E to H Streets and help officers any way they could.
He remembers a time when the SVP helped alleviate prostitution on Third Avenue. He said their presence moved prostitues to Broadway so the police could arrest them.
During his tenure, Mitchell expanded the roles of the SVP to help officers with traffic control, graffiti documentation and vacation checks. He instituted the You Are Not Alone Program that checks up on elderly people that live alone.
Chula Vista Police Chief David Bejerano said in an email that Mitchell will be missed.
“I have been overseeing the SVP since January, but from day one, I knew the program belonged to Jack and the community,” he said. “He worked almost every day during the last 20-years ensuring we had SVP’s to go out on patrol.”
Kiel said Mitchell always made the office lively.
“I’m going to miss his little odd-ball sayings, adages,” he said. “He always has an off-the-wall type thing to say. It’s a morale builder.”
Mitchell, a retired Chief Warrant Officer with the U.S. Navy said he took the leadership qualities he learned as a 20-Year Navy man with him as SVP’s director.
The Navy brought Mitchell from his hometown Detroit, Michigan to Chula Vista.
Mitchell fought in the tail end of WWII.
In the 20-years serving the SVP, Mitchell said his longevity is his greatest accomplishment.
“Just being in the job this long,” he said.
He said he isn’t sure why the time is right for him to retire, but that “it just comes from a higher calling.”
In retirement with a clean bill of health, Mitchell plans to spend more time with his dog and finally learn how to function his iPad.
With family spread throughout the country, Mitchell said the one thing he is going to miss is the people he worked with daily.
“I found a family here,” he said.
