Officer to CHiP In at Emergency Response Post

As revelers count down the minutes to Y2K, CHP Officer Wendy Moore will be counting the hours until she’s off work.

One of four uniformed media liaisons working in the Glendale-based division headquarters for the California Highway Patrol, Moore will be on limited tactical alert, prepared for whatever emergency may occur.

“It may be a wild evening or we could just end up watching TV,” said the 43-year-old Santa Clarita resident.

Moore’s shift pretty much rules out either an early or a late arrival at a New Year’s party: She’ll be working from 7 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. at a multiagency emergency response center in downtown L.A..

But she and other CHP officers are used to missing out on the holiday cheer. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve are maximum enforcement periods for the CHP, and for the Year 2000 celebration CHP guidelines call for local divisions to have 85% to 90% of their uniformed officers on duty.

In Los Angeles County, the CHP will be exceeding the state guidelines by having 97% of its officers on duty.

“We definitely want to be ready,” said Sgt. Ernie Sanchez, a nine-year veteran of the force. “We’re not expecting anything except a lot of parties. And it appears that our preliminary reports are now changing. We’re hearing many people are making the wisest choice by staying home.”

Over the New Year’s weekend in 1998, 33 people died on California highways. That is down from 47 in 1997, but the holiday weekend was extended by one day that year because New Year’s Day fell on a Thursday.

Sanchez says the decision to put nearly all hands on deck was not difficult, since most expect to work on holidays anyway. And it’s not just the CHP.

With the hoopla around Y2K, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have also opted to go on limited tactical alert.

The last limited tactical alert for Moore’s Glendale-based office was in May when 1,000 people marched to protest a decision to not file criminal charges against four Riverside police officers who shot and killed 19-year-old Tyisha Miller.

On New Year’s Eve, Moore will be working in a centralized emergency response center with officers from all three enforcement agencies. Her job will be to interact with the print and television news media.

“That way if something does happen, there will be representatives and high-ranking officers from all three agencies on hand,” Moore says.

The decision came down from Sacramento five months ago that the CHP would be on limited tactical alert for the entire New Year’s weekend, starting at 6 p.m. Friday and running through to midnight Sunday. Most officers will be required to work 12-hour shifts. Moore, an 18-year veteran of the force, says she doesn’t mind working because she’s never been one to take part in New Year’s celebrations.

“If you have seniority, you can usually get the holidays you want off,” she says. “But on New Year’s, I’m usually in bed asleep.”

Moore decided on a career in law enforcement after discovering that she was too short--5 feet, 4 inches--to be a firefighter. She considered applying for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, but nixed the idea when she found that new female recruits had to spend five years working as prison guards at the Sybil Brand Institute.

As a rookie CHP officer, she did road patrol for a year in Los Angeles before being transferred to the Santa Clarita CHP office. She eventually landed a desk job and worked her way to media liaison, transferring to Glendale one year ago.

While her days of driving a black-and-white are now behind her, Moore says she can still be called out into the field. She vividly remembers the tactical alert in 1992 when she spent four days in riot gear guarding firefighters sent out to extinguish fires during the L.A. riots.

“We rode four to a car with rifles and riot gear and then had to stand guard over the equipment,” she says. “We were watching high and low for snipers. We didn’t know what to expect.”

Pulling a graveyard stint this New Year’s Eve doesn’t faze her, given the number of graveyard shifts she’s had to work during her career, especially early on. “I spent six months one summer out in Santa Clarita working graveyard,” she says. “It was hot, we worked two to a car and we did nothing but arrest drunks. I’m glad I’m not doing that anymore.”