When the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office needs help with a community event, a reliable group of volunteers is just a phone call away.
The group is made up of Sheriff’s Office Citizens Academy graduates and is called the Sheriff’s Alumni Volunteer Echelon (SAVE).
“We try to fill in gaps,” said SAVE vice president Greg Murphy, 79, of Cedar Hill. “The little things they need that we can supply helps them. When you are talking about (supplying paper plates) or going out into the community to shake hands, that is something we can do for them. We help fill a hole that they may have had to use an officer or three officers to do.”
Since 1998, the Sheriff’s Office has held citizens academies – 12-week courses that meet once a week for three hours and provide participants with firsthand knowledge about Sheriff’s Office practices and procedures.
While law enforcement topics are addressed in the classes, the program does not train the participants to become police officers, according to the Sheriff’s Office website.
After some participants graduated from the citizens academy, they wanted to help the Sheriff’s Office, and SAVE was born.
“SAVE has been an integral part of our success for nearly 25 years,” Sheriff Dave Marshak said. “We feel blessed to have their support and most importantly, they serve as a reminder to our officers that this community cares about public safety.”
Coming aboard
Murphy said SAVE has 34 members, and he believes membership will grow after the current citizen’s academy ends in late May.
“(The academy) has a graduation at their last meeting, and we supply pizza and cake for the evening,” he said. “I give a speech at the end of graduation to tell them about SAVE and how to join. I do what I can to bring in new members.”
Murphy also said he hopes more members will join after the next citizen’s academy is held in the fall.
Crescent Lutz, 34, of Barnhart is one of SAVE’s newer members and the group’s secretary. She joined after graduating from the citizen’s academy in December 2021.
Lutz said she wanted to help the Sheriff’s Office partly because of stories she heard from her cousin, Michael Blattel, a Des Peres Police officer, and because of an encounter with a deputy in the summer of 2021.
She said Deputy Shawn Cope responded to an incident that summer involving a dog in her neighborhood, and she was impressed with how he handled the situation.
“He was wonderful,” Lutz said. “It was during COVID, and everyone was staying in their homes and being careful about being around people. He was out there doing his job. He was nice. It is not every day that a cop asks your name and remembers it. When he asked me questions he would say Crescent and not ma’am.
“That was the final push. I wanted to do something more to thank him for being there when he was needed.”
SAVE president Jason Rinne, 52, of Imperial said his path to the volunteer group was paved by his neighbors in 2014.
“They were talking about how they were attending (the citizen’s academy),” he said. “They talked about learning about the different aspects of the Sheriff’s Office. It sounded interesting, so my wife and I went with that couple. We wanted to learn more about the different aspects of their job and what they do.”
Rinne said he enjoyed the academy’s classes, and when he learned about the chance to help more, he took it.
“With us helping them out, it frees up the deputies to be out on calls,” he said. “Because at some of the events that we help with, like during the Strawberry or Apple Butter festivals at Kimmswick, that means they don’t have to take an officer off the street for those events. I think it helps free them up.”
Murphy said he attended the citizens academy in 2008 after a member of his card club talked about it.
“Seven of us got together and went through the academy,” he said. “We wanted to see what the Sheriff’s Office was all about. When we went there, we learned about the SAVE unit and that we would be able to join after graduating from the academy. The rest is history.”
Support
SAVE members often staff booths at community events and share information about the Sheriff’s Office, hand out giveaways and tell others about the citizens academy.
They also help run fundraising events, like the raffle that was held April 1 at Twin City Toyota in Herculaneum and raised money for the Jefferson County Deputy Welfare Fund.
“I feel like I’m more a part of my community,” Lutz said of participating in the events. “You get to meet people. Some people want you to explain what the citizens academy is and SAVE. It gets everything out there. I have made friends with the deputies, and I have made a bunch of friends with SAVE. It has brought a lot to me, while giving me a feeling of doing something good for my community.”
Murphy said the group also supplies things like paper plates and utensils for the Sheriff’s Office lunchroom. He said SAVE also has purchased a mascot uniform and a radar gun for the Sheriff’s Office.
“If the Sheriff’s Office needs something, they come to us, and if we have it in our treasury, we supply them with it,” he said.
SAVE’s main revenue source is the Victim’s Impact Group (VIP), a program designed to educate those who are charged with driving while intoxicated, Murphy said.
Lutz said SAVE members organize VIP, which costs $25 to attend.
People may be assigned to attend the class as part of their probation or through a judge’s order, she said.
“I handle registration at the class,” she said. “I’m in charge of sending out letters to probation and parole and attorneys about our program.”
Murphy said being a SAVE member is gratifying.
“I enjoy the things we do, and I feel like I am giving something back,” he said. “It is a good bunch of people in our group and the Sheriff’s Office. I just feel like I’m doing something to help.”
SAVE members meet at 7 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of every month at the Sheriff’s Office, 400 First St., in Hillsboro. It is open to those who maintain a clean record.
Membership in SAVE costs $12 a year.
The group may be contacted by email at jcsd.save@gmail.com. For information about the citizens academy call 636-797-5028.