Photos by Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Lou Bukauskas drives his patrol car Wednesday near Jefferson Forest High School in Bedford County. Members of the Retired Senior Volunteer Patrol may not use the car's yellow lights for traffic stops.

Bukauskas and fellow volunteer Barbara West often ride together. West pays special attention to cars parked in handicapped spaces.

Lou Bukauskas of the Retired Senior Volunteer Patrol writes a warning ticket for a car with an expired inspection sticker Wednesday. The volunteer group assists Bedford County authorities.

When it comes to retirees, there's the well-known, politically powerful AARP. But in Bedford County, there's also another retiree group that has some authority: the RSVP.

That would be the Retired Senior Volunteer Patrol, a group of 20 working with the county sheriff's department to do tasks that are saving taxpayers more than $100,000 a year, according to estimates. The group, started in 2000 and solidifying its role every year since, does everything from running errands to controlling traffic at Liberty High School to helping motorists get their car doors open when they misplace their keys.

It also does some "detective" work. On a recent Thursday afternoon, RSVP member Lou Bukauskas was patrolling the parking lot of the Bedford Wal-Mart.

He's cruising the lot to make sure all the cars in spaces allotted for the handicapped are parked there legally, bearing the proper license plates or hang tags. Violators are issued a written warning.

"I like to come through a couple of times a day," he said.

Bukauskas, 67, drives a sheriff's department vehicle, but he is not a sworn officer nor does he carry a weapon. He takes the job very seriously.

"We are here to observe and report," he said.

RSVP crews cannot illuminate the yellow lights on top of the patrol car to perform traffic stops. They are not authorized to serve summonses or make arrests.

But their presence in the community saves the sheriff's department time and money.

Volunteers "end up saving us about $150,000 a year," said Mike Miller, captain of the sheriff's department community services division.

He takes the hours worked by all volunteers, including those in RSVP, and calculates the savings in salaries.

"The benefit to the sheriff's office is to take that workload and keep them focused on the important elements of law enforcement," said Chuck Neudorfer, an RSVP volunteer who also serves on the county's board of supervisors.

The sheriff's department can apply for grants to supplement its local and state budgetary contributions. Some of those grants require local matches, and hours worked by volunteers may contribute to the match in some cases, Neudorfer said.

"That is a definite positive back to the county from a financial standpoint," he said.

The RSVP volunteers logged approximately 4,000 hours of support last year. "We do that sort of thing instead of taking a deputy off the road," Bukauskas said.

The volunteers regularly check inspection stickers and license plate decals on vehicles parked in the county's school parking lots. Out-of-date stickers warrant a written warning.

More than one car owner has approached Bukauskas to question what he was doing. His answer: giving the violator the chance to avoid a fine by complying with the laws before being ticketed by a deputy.

He said he once was writing a warning for an expired safety inspection in one of the high school's lots. It was near the end of the day and the student came outside.

"He told me his mother forgot to get the vehicle inspected," Bukauskas recounted.

He still issued a warning ticket -- it was not the mother's responsibility he said.

Although Bukauskas has no law enforcement experience, he became interested in the RSVP program and completed the citizen police academy after moving to Smith Mountain Lake.

Bukauskas retired from the Air Force and left the Washington, D.C., area. He has served as RSVP's coordinator since 2003.

"The first thing I found out is you can't deal with it like the military," Bukauskas said. "You're dealing with volunteers. You don't tell or order or demand."

Bukauskas operates in an organized and methodical way. He is responsible for all the administrative tasks, which includes creating spreadsheets of the volunteers' schedules. RSVP teams of at least two volunteers are scheduled for eight-hour shifts Monday through Friday.

Neudorfer is part of the three-man volunteer crew that patrols on Fridays. The volunteers make home visits to check wristbands worn by clients in the Project Lifesaver program. Most of the participants have Alzheimer's disease, and they are outfitted with a wristband that emits a radio signal in case they wander off or get lost.

The RSVP volunteers also work with Senior Citizens Assisting Law Enforcement Services, an outreach program for county residents who are homebound or live alone. The volunteers call or visit the homes of participants to check on their well-being. The county's department of social services refers clients to the SCALES program.

Barbara West of Vinton rides with Bukauskas most Tuesdays. West, also 67, retired from Norfolk Southern in Roanoke.

Although she never had any professional experience, she said she always liked law enforcement. Patrolling the parking lots to check the handicapped spaces especially is important to her because her father used a wheelchair.

She said it used to frustrate her when she drove him to a doctor's appointment and the handicapped parking spaces were taken by drivers without the required permits.

"They should be ticketed," West said.

The warning tickets RSVP volunteers write are not accompanied by any fines but are entered into the sheriff department's database. If stopped by a deputy for the same infraction, dispatch notifies the deputy of the warning issued.

West said she would donate another day of her time each week in the courtroom, testifying against the parking violators if she could. That's how passionate she is about the issue.

"I just wish at times we could do more, but in our volunteer capacity, we are limited," she said. "I would like to be able to do more."