Our mission as Posses is to patrol the streets of Sun City West on a daily basis creating a presence and serving as the eyes and ears of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
Within that mission we perform vacation watches on homes when the owners are away, do welfare checks for residents whom family and friends are unable to make contact, watch for open garage doors, perform drive-by examinations on residences where circumstances may be questionable, and the list goes on.
We are now two Posses integrated together (Sun City West Posse and Sheriff’s Posse of Sun City West). The Posses work as one providing the same services we have always provided to this community.
Though the staff is entirely a volunteer force, we do have serious operating costs.
1. Fuel costs are approximately $3,500 per month.
2, Insurance to keep our automobiles and Posse building open and operating including building, vehicles, liability, etc. are approximately $50,000 year.
3. Utilities are approximately $15,000-$16,000 per year.
4. Internet and phones are approximately $500 per month.
5. Vehicles are driven until we reach 140,000-150,000 miles and then replaced because our driving is basically slow driving within-the community. This is just not conducive to longevity of the vehicles.
6. A replacement vehicle will be approximately $45,000. Several of our vehicles have over 150,000 miles on them.
And these figures do not include maintaining the vehicles (much of it done by Posse volunteers) or replacing them.
There are no subsidies from outside agencies.
Not the county, nor the state, nor the Sheriff’s Department nor the Rec Centers provide funding for the Posse. It is the citizens of this community that make donations which allows the Posse to purchase replacement vehicles and all other expenses through our annual fund drive.
We are a tax exempt 501(3c) organization. All Posse members are unpaid volunteers and many work 8-10 shifts per month in order to cover all our shifts and put patrols on the streets.
We have patrol officers, dispatchers, duty officers, receptionists, data entry persons, office vacation watch personnel, vehicle maintenance people, building maintenance personnel and everyone else it takes to run an efficient operation and “keep those cars on the streets”.
Thanks in advance for your voluntary donations during our drives.
Editor’s note: Jan Vejraska is public information officer for the Sheriff’s Posse of Sun City West and the Sun City West Posse.
