{"id":71311,"date":"2025-12-01T11:20:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T11:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/71311\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T11:20:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T11:20:13","slug":"meet-the-seniors-patrolling-this-san-antonio-neighborhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/71311\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the seniors patrolling this San Antonio neighborhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

All year we have covered the stories that matter most to San Antonio, at no cost to you or the community. Your support fuels our work. <\/p>\n

Will you help us make our $95,000 year-end goal to keep us going?<\/p>\n

Two men in navy polo shirts ease a black-and-white Crown Victoria through a quiet Northeast Side subdivision, moving meticulously through its streets. The car looks like a San Antonio Police unit at first glance \u2014 spotlight on the driver\u2019s side, push bumper on the front, and a red and blue light bar on top.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But this one belongs to the neighborhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Behind the wheel is Howard McClelland, a 78-year-old pharmacist. In the car with him is Tom Suk, an 80-year-old retired \u201cnewspaper man\u201d who spent three decades covering cops and fires in Iowa. Both men are veterans, Army and Navy respectively, and both now spend part of their free time slowly looping the streets of Steubing Ranch, serving as the \u201ceyes and ears\u201d for police as part of San Antonio\u2019s Citizens on Patrol Program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Never miss San Antonio Report’s biggest stories.<\/p>\n

Sign up for The Recap, a newsletter rundown of the most important news, delivered every Monday and Thursday.<\/p>\n

Citizen on Patrol (COP) is a community crime watch program where participants are trained in observing suspicious activities and contacting emergency services. Participants must submit an application and complete a four hour training class prior to coordinating patrols with other COP graduates in their neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a mobile neighborhood watch,\u201d Suk said as he rolled past the community park. \u201cWe observe, we report. If we have problems, we call SAPD. That\u2019s it. We\u2019re not police \u2014 we don\u2019t go looking for confrontation.\u201d<\/p>\n

SAPD public information officer Ricardo Guzman said the department sees that value clearly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThese 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\u2019s a great program,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While numerous COP units exist across San Antonio, Steubing Ranch\u2019s unit is unusually committed. There are 17 members on the roster, in a community of roughly 900 to 1,000 homes. Almost all have military service, with members ranging in age from 78 to 86.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur leader is 86. I\u2019m 80. He\u2019s the baby, he\u2019s 79\u201d Suk said, nodding toward McClelland, who quickly corrected him. \u201cActually, I told you wrong, I\u2019m only 78,\u201d McClelland said with a laugh. \u201cWe actually thought about changing it from COP to GOP \u2014 Geezers on Patrol.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Members of the unit purchase their own custom COP branded navy polos, hats and khaki pants. Their patrol car, a retired SAPD Crown Vic from 2009, was purchased entirely through donations from neighborhood residents in 2017.\u00a0The Volunteers pay for the gas, insurance and maintenance out of their own pockets and through recurring fundraisers.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Steubing Ranch Citizens on Patrol car sits at Bruce Campbell Park. The vehicle was purchased through donations from residents in 2017. Credit: Diego Medel \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re so proud that we are backed by our citizens,\u201d Suk said. \u201dWe\u2019re out here shaking a red can sometimes two times a year, and they hold events for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0When it comes to serving the community, the unit\u2019s work is more methodical than dramatic. Patrols are intentionally irregular \u2014 sometimes from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., sometimes early morning, even 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. \u2014 partly because volunteers have jobs and families and partly to keep potential criminals guessing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of keeps the bad guys off-balance if they don\u2019t know when we\u2019re going to patrol. And because they do talk to each other, and they know we patrol here,\u201d McClelland said. \u201cWe just drive around the neighborhood, and this unit itself, as well as the patrol, is a deterrent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Howard McClelland patrols the neighborhoods of Steubing Ranch, where volunteer patrol times range from early mornings to late nights. Credit: Diego Medel \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Most nights, they cruise slowly through the neighborhood and a smaller adjoining loop residents call \u201cLittle Steubing Ranch.\u201d They keep an eye out for open garage doors after midnight, porch pirates around the holidays, mail theft from the older cluster mail boxes, after-hours visitors to the neighborhood swimming pool and park, plus looking for faulty streetlights, water leaks or infrastructure issues to report to city departments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 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.\u201d Suk said as he chuckled. \u201cOr we\u2019re driving around here at 30 miles an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

But their presence, the pair said, has occasionally assisted in bigger cases. In 2018, the group bought game cameras to monitor all 26 mailbox clusters in the subdivision. The cameras were fussy and expensive, but once, It clearly caught the license plate of a mail thief.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe managed to get a good plate number from this one.\u2029They\u2019re not the best from trying to read plates. We got lucky with that one, though.\u201d Suk said. \u201c We finally had to give up on that program, though. The cameras weren\u2019t that good.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Suk said that plate number led to a dozen people being arrested in a major mail theft ring based out of Floresville with \u201cbags and bags of mail.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another case, the impact was lifesaving. Longtime coordinator for the unit Bruce Campbell, for whom the neighborhood park is now named, was driving through the neighborhood one afternoon after a patrol when someone flagged him down about an injured man lying on the grass next to his lawnmower.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBruce thought maybe the lawnmower threw a rod, because the man was bleeding heavily from the leg,\u201d Suk said. \u201cHe went to stop the bleeding, looked up and there was a woman standing in the doorway with a gun. She\u2019d shot her husband.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Campbell used his military training to control the bleeding until paramedics arrived, Suk said. \u201cAnd everybody said he\u2019d save that man\u2019s life. He would have bled out. He actually got an award for it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Campbell was awarded the Compassionate San Antonian award<\/a> by then-District 10 San Antonio city councilman Clayton Perry in 2020 for his lifesaving actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At age 86, Campbell has now stepped down as coordinator and handed the reins to McClelland.<\/p>\n

As much as McClelland and Suk enjoy their work, both men know they won\u2019t be doing it forever. For all their jokes about being \u201cGeezers on Patrol,\u201d McClelland and Suk aren\u2019t shy about the concern beneath the humor: The unit works well for now because a handful of retirees have decided this is how they want to use their time. Eventually, they said, someone younger will have to take the wheel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do this as much as we can. We would like to be out here more,\u201d McClelland said. \u201cWe would like to have younger people join the program. We don\u2019t seem to have a lot of luck with that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suk nodded. \u201cYeah, but people raising a family and working, how can they get out from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m.?\u2029They can\u2019t do it. I know I couldn\u2019t do this when I was working.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Officer Jairo Sanchez briefs prospective Citizens on Patrol members during the first COP training class at the St. Mary\u2019s Substation. Credit: Diego Medel \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the city, a different kind of pipeline may be forming. A few days after the Oct. 16 patrol, SAPD held its first Citizen on Patrol class at its newest substation on St. Mary\u2019s Street in hopes of recruiting more units like Steubing Ranch\u2019s. <\/p>\n

Only three residents from the SAFFE district showed up to the inaugural class, a semi-retired attorney, a police academy hopeful and a student studying to become a detective.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officer Jairo Sanchez, the San Antonio Fear Free Environment officer for the substation, briefed attendees on the basics of the program, from how COP volunteers observe and report issues to when to contact emergency services. It was informal, straightforward and aimed at giving participants a sense of how they might fit into neighborhood-level patrols.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Steubing Ranch Citizens on Patrol car was purchased through donations from residents in 2017. Credit: Diego Medel \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Back in the Crown Vic, McClelland and Suk say they\u2019ll keep patrolling as long as they can \u2014 crawling the same streets at 30 mph, waving to the same neighbors and joking about being \u201cGeezers on Patrol.\u201d<\/p>\n

What they do isn\u2019t flashy, they said, but it keeps their community safe.<\/p>\n

Are you doing your part?<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve read unlimited of unlimited articles this month. That\u2019s right \u2014 we\u2019re committed to providing free, fair journalism for all.<\/p>\n

But without donor support, our nonprofit newsroom can\u2019t do its job to inform and empower your community.<\/p>\n

Are you in? Your donation of any amount will help keep articles like this one accessible to all San Antonians.<\/p>\n

\t