CHP or PD?

[ExplorerSGT]

What made some of you guys go chp vs. a local police dept?. Ive been an explorer for about 5 years now and over the years my interest in chp has lowered. My family wants me to go CHP because of the good pay and the line of work, i on the other hand would rather go LAPD because i like alot of action. Does the level of work vary depending on what area office you work at? Im sure central office gets way more action then the office im out of. It kinda sucks because theres some days ill go to work and have more action then a Bwatch ride along, dont get me wrong, a day of no arrests is a good day because you are obviously doing your job but i just like to keep myself busy. Input is greatly appreciated.

[retchp]

There will come a day when you get tired of the action. When that day comes and you are trapped in whichever little or big city or county you signed on with tough luck..soldier on. With CHP you can just go somewhere else. Different type of action. Different type of scenery. New people at work. New neighbors.
What if you get a nit wit for a police chief or a loser for a supervisor on the PD. You are trapped. On CHP they are gone soon or you can go elsewhere until they leave. Example...Riverside to Indio..then back again once they are gone.
I worked in eight different areas. Because I wanted the variety. Went from one end of the state to the other. Big cities, small towns. My career flew by.
California is a big state. Where else can you be a cop in a city, a small town, on the ocean, at the lake, in the mountains etc. Only here.
Plus the pay is generally better and the retirement is too. Also, there is variety within the job...air ops, motors, division auto theft, MRE, Scales, staff jobs in area etc. Hope this helps you maike a decision.

[ExplorerSGT]

There will come a day when you get tired of the action. When that day comes and you are trapped in whichever little or big city or county you signed on with tough luck..soldier on. With CHP you can just go somewhere else. Different type of action. Different type of scenery. New people at work. New neighbors.
What if you get a nit wit for a police chief or a loser for a supervisor on the PD. You are trapped. On CHP they are gone soon or you can go elsewhere until they leave. Example...Riverside to Indio..then back again once they are gone.
I worked in eight different areas. Because I wanted the variety. Went from one end of the state to the other. Big cities, small towns. My career flew by.
California is a big state. Where else can you be a cop in a city, a small town, on the ocean, at the lake, in the mountains etc. Only here.
Plus the pay is generally better and the retirement is too. Also, there is variety within the job...air ops, motors, division auto theft, MRE, Scales, staff jobs in area etc. Hope this helps you maike a decision.

very good point...im probably going to apply for both agencies. Another reason why im hesitant on applying with CHP is because im partially deaf in my right ear and i called up personel and they told my "dont keep my hopes up", which is a pain because ive been dedicating myself to the dept for so long. But hey, im sure ill be happy with whoever picks me up, ive wanted to be a police officer all my life so its all the same :smile:

[Your Mentor]

E-Serge,
Don't let your hearing problem disuade your goal to join the CHP. Information you get over the phone isn't always solid. And if there is a physical condition which would DQ you for the CHP, it would likely DQ you for an allied agency. Start looking into treatment, if any, you can get for your hearing. If not, find out what the actual loss of use is. Everything in this business is numbers based. If you know the actual loss of hearing you can then find the cut-off from the cadet hiring unit. If your under the cut-off then you know to keep going with the process. If you know you won't make the cut-off then you won't waste 6 months to a year of your life.

As for who's the best? I taught two separate tours as an instructor at the Academy. Our hiring process is more competitive primarily because of the volume of applicants we get; not necessarily because our standards are higher. Hiring standards, per se, are determined by the State Personnel Board and POST. This is a misconception shared by many. What sets the CHP apart is our training process. Our Academy is one of the last live-in facilities and you're literally saturated with the CHP for 24/7. In six months you've experienced, based on hours, two years of college. And we assign more hours to specific subjects. We match all of the POST required hours but we exceed them in various subjects. For example, in report writing CHP cadets receive 52 hours; POST only requires 20. In DUI Enforcement, our cadets receive over 70 hours including a comprehensive wet-lab and required reporting; POST only requires 12 hours in DUI as part of Vehicle Code training. In fact, once you graduate you have satisfied the requirements for Drug Recognition Expert training whereas allied personnel must first complete Standardized Field Sobriety Test training as a prerequisite.

Now for my pro-allied speech: Comparing any allied agency to the CHP is like comparing apples to oranges. No other agency in the state performs the same duties we do. The jobs are entirely different. We don't take radio calls to domestic violence incidents (back up only once on these and you'll be glad you don't). I agree entirely with retchp in that the job mobility is awesome. I worked in Death Valley, Lone Pine, Bishop, and Tulelake. I took two two-year breaks from the road to join the Academy's Academic Unit (hardly a break; I worked way harder teaching than I ever did on the road). I'm looking to transfer again; hopefully the last until I retire. None of this makes us the best. It's just different. In small, remote areas you have to work hand-in-hand with deputies, PD officers, park rangers, etc.

[Mac]

I've seen both sides of the coin, as I was an Explorer/Reserve Officer for two PDs before I became a CHP Officer. One of my FTOs on the PD was prior CHP, and I asked him once why he had left. He said he had gotten a lot of flak from his buddies about being a "real cop", and finally succumbed to it and lateralled to the PD. I asked him what he thought of it, and he said "Don't make the same mistake I did". He said if he had it to do all over again, he never would have left the CHP.

You do different things on a PD, but as Your Mentor said, domestic violence calls get old very quickly - and you do roll to a lot of them. During the time I was with the PDs, I met several CHP Officers and took numerous ride-alongs with them, and was learning a lot about this Department as I considered my options. As it came close to decision time, I compared the two jobs and decided that I liked both the job description and the freedom of the CHP better. I have no disrespect for our allied agencies - their job is no less (or more) important than ours, and there is admittedly more job diversity as far as detectives, school resource officers, crime prevention officers, SWAT/SED, etc. However, you can still do some of these things with the CHP - the positions are just fewer, and harder to get into. You can also get into MAIT, MRE (commercial enforcement), scales, and some other things that PDs don't do. The flip side of the coin has already been mentioned, too - you're free to move about the state pretty much wherever and whenever you want to, and the job is different in every Area. If you want action and lots of crime, work in LA - you'll get more than your share of pursuits, shootings, felony pinches, dope, guns, counterfeiting, and just about anything else you can think of. Go out east to the inland empire and you'll find mobile meth labs, chop shops, heavy equipment theft, hate crimes, and more dope and guns. If you get tired of that, transfer to an area along one of the major interstate corridors and work commercial enforcement and agricultural/farm labor stuff. Head out to the desert and work ultra-high speeds and multi-fatal grinders. If you go to the small, remote areas, you'll work very closely with the PDs and SOs, and often be the first responder on their calls. It's all there, and more - and the nice thing is, you don't have to lateral, lose seniority, benefits and pay, and go through being the 'new guy' all over again as you would if you lateralled from PD to PD. If you go somewhere and find that it's not your cup of tea, throw in a 220 and go back where you were, or try somewhere new. No matter where you go, it's not hard to keep yourself busy during shift - the difference is that a lot of our activity is self-initiated vs. responding to radio calls, so you can (at least to some degree) pick and choose HOW you keep busy.

It's a great job, and an honorable one, no matter which way you go. A lot of the allied agency guys wouldn't like CHP work, and a lot of us wouldn't want their job, so it's just a matter of which appeals to you most.

[Nonsequitur]

It's a great job, and an honorable one, no matter which way you go. A lot of the allied agency guys wouldn't like CHP work, and a lot of us wouldn't want their job, so it's just a matter of which appeals to you most.

Amen, preach on brother! :!: :cool:

[Capsicum]

You'll have to search with in yourself to see what kind of job you want to do for your career. In my case, I was getting older and didn't want to just respond to DV and barking dog calls all the time. When I was younger I had applied with both the SO and PD but wasn't in the proper condition to continue and chose a different career path (I'm kicking my self in the ass now for that decision).

The CHP is a great gig. If you want action, like others have said, work in LA. The South LA office has beats in Compton and in the Florence & Normandy areas and you get plenty of action there with all the gangs.

Don't sell yourself short by thinking short term, think about what you want to be doing in 5, 10, 20 years and I bet its not always going to be action oriented.

[nuke1601]

Could anyone give their story on what it is like serving in the CHP? Both typical and non-typical days, family life, camaraderie, promotions, etc. Trying to get a feel for the atmosphere. This was something I did not do enough of before I joined the Air Force. By the way, this is a great site, and a whealth of information for a prospective candidate. Thanks all

[4CHP]

Could anyone give their story on what it is like serving in the CHP? Both typical and non-typical days, family life, camaraderie, promotions, etc. Trying to get a feel for the atmosphere. This was something I did not do enough of before I joined the Air Force. By the way, this is a great site, and a whealth of information for a prospective candidate. Thanks all

Great question, I'm looking forward to the answers! :cool:

[centurion]

In regards to "There will come a day when you get tired of the action." That depends on what type of cop you are. I've been with LAPD for 12 years. I work at one of the busy areas in the City. I started taking bad guys to jail 12 years ago and never looked back. I still love it and will NOT get tired of it. LAPD is large enough that if I ever wanted a "break from the action", I can get it. Personally, I don't see it happening. Being a "cop" is a state of mind, who you work for doesn't define you as a cop. It's what you do when you're wearing the uniform that counts. I know lots of chippies that have backed me up on "in-progess 211's", high risk car stops and so forth. You can have lots of fun and get lots of action as a Chippie. You can be a slug as an LAPD officer. Agencies have nothing to do with it. There's action everywhere. You don't have to look for it, believe me...it WILL find you. Chippies have it pretty good. Good pay, great bennies, etc. Don't give it up just because it's slow at work.

[HwyChaser]

In regards to "There will come a day when you get tired of the action." That depends on what type of cop you are. I've been with LAPD for 12 years. I work at one of the busy areas in the City. I started taking bad guys to jail 12 years ago and never looked back. I still love it and will NOT get tired of it. LAPD is large enough that if I ever wanted a "break from the action", I can get it. Personally, I don't see it happening. Being a "cop" is a state of mind, who you work for doesn't define you as a cop. It's what you do when you're wearing the uniform that counts. I know lots of chippies that have backed me up on "in-progess 211's", high risk car stops and so forth. You can have lots of fun and get lots of action as a Chippie. You can be a slug as an LAPD officer. Agencies have nothing to do with it. There's action everywhere. You don't have to look for it, believe me...it WILL find you. Chippies have it pretty good. Good pay, great bennies, etc. Don't give it up just because it's slow at work.

Well put Centurion! People need to keep in mind that the L.A. area and Bay area are is almost all incorporated. This limits the amount of unusual things an Officer gets into. Don?t get me wrong, Officers in these areas are very busy and can see just about everything but usually transfer out within the first 3 years. This limits the amount of experience CHP has in the area with unusual calls. In large unincorporated areas, Officers will handle and assist several different types of calls. While I was in L.A. I never got tired of the action, just got tired of the same calls over and over and almost always on the freeway.

[Your Mentor]

Centurion, HwyChaser,
You guys rock. What a great perspective to offer candidates. My son is in the Army overseas and constantly vascilates between the CHP and a PD. One day he wants to be a SWAT sniper and the next he wants to work a CHP desert beat chasing speed all day. I've never tried to influence him either way. There are so many different "COPS" in California. We either work together or the whole system falls apart. Be proud of who you are, what you do, and others will be proud to work with you!

[Mac]

Could anyone give their story on what it is like serving in the CHP? Both typical and non-typical days, family life, camaraderie, promotions, etc....
Part of the beauty of this job is that there really is no "typical" day - every day is different, and poses a different set of challenges. That was something that really attracted me to the job in the beginning, and I've always enjoyed it. Not only that, but "typical" would vary widely depending upon where you're working....there'll be a lot of difference between a major metropolitan area, a remote desert or mountain area, or a mid-sized city/town. Sometimes you'll go a whole shift without getting a radio call, and other days you'll be buried from the minute you get in the car and turn the radio on.....some days you'll get off on time, some days you'll be there for 5 or 6 hours (or more) after shift. You'll run into everything from verbal warnings for minor violations to arresting hardened parolees for violent felonies, and take crashes ranging from non-injury hit-and-runs to tragic, gory, multi-vehicle multi-fatal collisions with grieving family members present. You'll run across people who are eternally grateful for you being there, and people who will curse your very existence. You'll see things you wish you hadn't seen that will bring you to tears and haunt your dreams, and things that will make you marvel and fill your heart with joy. Just when you're ready to throw your hands up and proclaim that all of mankind is hopelessly stupid and irredeemably evil, you'll meet someone who totally restores your faith in humanity. Once in a while you'll change people's lives - some for the better, and some for the worse. I know that's a vague, philosophical answer, but the long and short of it is that you'll get an entirely different picture of the job if you talk to a beat cop in Central LA and another one who works in a small northern CA office. What we have in common is that we all wear the same badge and uniform, write tickets, put people in jail, and help those in need.

As far as family life - at least for the first few years, expect to work a lot of weekends and holidays and bounce around from shift to shift. As long as your family is prepared for that and supportive of you, there's no problem with it - but it can take a toll if you've been a "9 to 5'er" and your wife can't handle the "empty bed" while you're on graveyard shift, or you not being around on weekends when all your civilian friends are partying and doing things. The advantage is that your schedule will be flexible, and you'll be able to do a lot of things on weekdays while everybody else is at work, which allows you to avoid the crowds.

Camaraderie - IMO, one of the greatest parts of this job. When you're literally trusting your co-workers with your life on a daily basis, you form a closeness that I never found in the civilian sector. There are a lot of off-duty activities (softball tournaments, sporting events, parties, picnics, etc.), and you'll meet a lot of great people that you'll work hard and play hard with. On graveyard shift, you will (quite literally) spend more of your waking hours with your partner than you do with your wife - and if you have a good graveyard partner, there is NO better shift on the Highway Patrol!

Advancement - as was discussed in another thread, don't think purely in terms of promotion in rank. You can work auto theft, insurance fraud, MAIT (accident reconstruction), commercial enforcement, air operations, K-9/dope, felony officer, and a multitude of other special duty/staff positions. Promotion is an option too - but be ready to study hard and quite possibly relocate to somewhere you'd rather not go. If you're planning on climbing the ranks, it's best to accept in advance the fact that you're most likely going to be basically transient for the next 10 years or so.....you'll very rarely promote "in place", and the higher you go, the fewer options you have (while there are anywhere from 15-130 Officers in an Area Office, there are only 2 to 12 Sergeants, 1 or 2 Lieutenants, and 1 Captain - you do the math!). :biggrin:shock:ubt: Promoting has its drawbacks, but it also has benefits - it offers a change of pace when you get to the point that you need one, gives you a whole new set of job tasks to learn and become proficient in, and also doesn't hurt financially when retirement time rolls around.

[centurion]

Hey Mentor...your son can have the best of both worlds. My team trains with Chippie SWAT guys every quarter. Those guys are "10-8"! Some people don't know or forget that CHP has a SWAT team. They may not get as much "call-outs" but they train like there's no tomorrow...got to respect that. Like any other SWAT team, you guys have your entry guys and your snipers. Tell your boy to do a google on CHP SWAT, you'll be surprised at what you'll get.

[Your Mentor]

Thanks centurion, I will do that. He's in the US Army right now, assigned to the 25th Infantry Division. Very gung ho.

[centurion]

Anyone that serves is good to go in my book. I'm a former Marine myself 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 2 Marines. Good luck to your boy