CHP, Caltrans Test Tracking Devices to Speed Response

Experimental tracking devices just installed in California Highway Patrol and Caltrans cars throughout Orange County are expected to reduce response times to traffic snarls, officials announced Wednesday.

The CHP has rigged all its marked patrol units in Orange County with the electronic system, designed to help dispatchers determine which officers are closest to traffic problems. Eighteen Caltrans cars and trucks have also been equipped, officials said.

A $454,000 grant from the state will pay for the two-year test.

A black box about the size of a VHS cassette emits a constant radio frequency that is monitored by dispatchers for the CHP and California Department of Transportation. Looking at a computer screen displaying a colored map of county freeways and vehicle locations, dispatchers can send the closest unit to a traffic problem. Authorities hope that will cut response times in half, CHP Officer Angel Johnson said, and thereby alleviate traffic jams more quickly.

Currently, the average response time for a highway patrol unit in Orange County is 19 minutes, said Doug Uhlik, a CHP officer in Sacramento.

The Orange County experiment is one of several the highway patrol is conducting across the state with electronic gadgetry, said Richard Lane, an assistant CHP chief.

In south Orange County, dispatchers are having some difficulty tracking units with the new system, however, said CHP Lt. Dwight McKenna. The computer map of the San Clemente area and Ortega Highway have not been completed and a transmitting tower that would help boost patrol units’ signals has not been erected, he said.

The tracking systems are not a novelty to the county. The Irvine Police Department has a similar system, and the Huntington Beach Police Department has an electronic system that tracks stolen cars.