Policeman Sets Up Camp Near Work : Law enforcement: Anaheim officer makes truck his home two nights a week to avoid commute after 12-hour workdays.

Michael Gray loves his job so much, he chooses to live two nights a week in the back of a to be near it.

Spartan but spotless, the vehicle’s punchboard walls are reserved for tiny framed pictures of his wife and son. The photographs, window curtains and familiar bedroll, tucked in the crawl space above the truck cab, are about the only reminders of family and a home that wait for him in the woods of Cedar Pines Park, just south of Lake Arrowhead.

Purchasing the maroon truck was one of the first things the 23-year veteran of the Anaheim police force considered last month when the department approved new 12-hour shifts and a three-day-a-week work schedule.

The 46-year-old sergeant says the makeshift home is saving him from what would have been hellish and ultimately intolerable commutes of nearly five hours each day after a 12-hour day ending at 3 a.m.

The time spent away from family, Gray said, is a small price for a job and new work schedule that also give him four consecutive days off--enough quality time to keep the local Little League team tuned and pine needles raked.

Assigned to the patrol division and having settled in a home so far away three years ago, Gray said the unusual living arrangement is probably the only way he could have continued his career with the department.

“Even though I spend two nights here, this gives me a lot more time with my family,” Gray said. “I feel like I’ve started a brand new job.”

In an attempt to strike the right balance between his home and work lives, the sergeant previously had been forced to tinker with his police schedule, switching from day to night shifts two months ago.

Working nights allowed him to cut his commuting time from 2 1/2 hours each way to about an hour and 15 minutes. But counting the daily drive time to and from work, Gray said he was effectively working 13-hour days.

The commute was also costing him more than time. Fuel bills were averaging $200 a month and more.

“I tried getting into a van pool, but with my schedule, it never seemed to work right. It was really tough,” he said.

With the new schedule and camper, Gray said, he makes the commute only once each week. These days, his typical work week begins late Sunday afternoon and ends in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday.

His hours away from home are usually spent sleeping or preparing for the next day’s shift.

“It usually gets pretty hot in here by about 11” a.m., he said, standing in the narrow space between his “kitchen table” and built-in stove, “so I’m usually up by about 10:30. I go for a run every morning, lift a couple weights in the (department weight room), use the shower facilities here and grab some fast-food lunch. By then, it’s usually time to come back to work.”

Fatigue has not been a factor so far, and with the extra days off he is finding that he and his fellow officers actually have more energy and are “ready to dig in” after the long weekend.

Gray admits the camper lifestyle gets a little stale, especially near the end of his week. But by that time, he’s looking at four days off.

“My wife and family, we get to spend a lot of time together now. We have a jet ski and do some boating. I help with the Little League, and I spend a lot of time raking pine needles.”