WEST SACRAMENTO-
In a FOX40 special report, we take a look at diversity in the work force when it comes to local CHP officers.
“A lot of people just can’t perceive putting my life in danger for somebody else’s,” explains one current recruit.
Many, like that recruit, hear the call to serve.
“Don’t forget who you serve, you serve the community. Respect the community,” stresses one veteran officer.
Only a select few listen with the level of commitment and determination needed to make a life in law enforcement.
Cabri Griffin, 28, traded the beaches of Puerto Vallarta for the seen and unseen hurdles of California’s Highway Patrol Academy – just 12 days after honeymooning with his new bride.
Leaving her in Los Angeles for six months while he trains in West Sacramento – just one of many sacrifices in his fight to get behind this badge.
He’s now a senior cadet just three weeks shy of graduation.
He says there’s a public perception about what happens when you go off to the academy, but reality is different.
“A lot different,” says the senior cadet class squad leader with a knowing chuckle.
Confronting the rigor of the academy versus the romanticized version of crime-fighting most people see on T.V. – not such a surprise to Griffin – but something else was startling.
He was stunned by low number of minorities in his class.
“It was a surprise, first getting here, just seeing, you know, only a handful, a few that look like me,” said Griffin.
That handful?
Only three other African-Americans in his class, or just 3 percent of the 135 young men and women who began vying to wear the CHP uniform along with him.
So why not more?
“That’s a really good question and one that we struggle with constantly,” said Sgt. Norman Vandermeyde, the statewide recruitment sergeant and explorer coordinator for the CHP.
“In order to solve crime and make it a better place…we have to do it together,” he said.
Mexican-Americans are the ethnic group in this class making the biggest contribution to changing the face of the CHP, accounting for almost 38 percent of the cadets.
For the class behind them, the complexion of the CHP whitens significantly.
Fifty-seven percent of the starting junior cadet class were Caucasian.
Those numbers, still the reality, despite a summer of societal pressure for more representative law enforcement after the violent clashes between the police and the public following grand jury decisions in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases.
Both were unarmed, killed by while officers under questionable circumstances and per the will of grand jurors will not have their killers face trial.
Many believe the real basis for those rulings was racial bias – with a lack of understanding between races the true cause of the deaths in the first place.
Cabri Griffin understands where those feelings come from.
“I’ve been in situations where the police have pulled me over,” he said, going on to describe the encounters as being hassled by officers.
“Just depending on what neighborhood you’re in, you get pulled over.
I remember in particular being pulled over twice in one night by the sheriffs. They pull me out, said, ‘Hey, I’m going to check your car,’ pulled me in the back seats, checked my car, let me go,” he recounted.
Still, frustration over such situations didn’t become a hurdle in Griffin’s pursuit of a CHP badge.
“It makes you mad, but not everybody is like that. Like I said, it’s individual people so not every single officer is doing the same thing,” he explains.
Finding ways to spread that perspective may be the most challenging but effective recruitment tool for the CHP to find.
