Moto Cops

Written by Bakersfield Magazine

The first time I saw a CHP officer on a bike, I knew that was what I wanted to do.”

Abraham Hinojosa is not alone in his desire. Motorcycles are rad, after all. They represent something innately masculine. A bike is 600 pounds of metal, fuel, and horsepower; it’s testosterone incarnate.

So it’s not uncommon for young men to desire a career that allows them to command authority and ride around on a motorcycle at the same time.

But Hinojosa, 39, is one of a select few who followed through on those dreams. He went on to become a California Highway Patrol officer in August of 2001, though it would be eight years before he would hop on a bike for the job.

“You don’t start out on a bike right away. Every officer starts off in a car,” Hinojosa explained. “You have to request to train as a motorcycle officer, or ‘motor,’ as we call them. And you train on your own time with your own bike.”

Which begs the question, is every “motor” just an adrenaline junkie who wants to get paid to ride a bike?

Far from it.

“It sounds cliché, but you’re out there on your own. It’s just you and the wind,” Hinojosa added. “That’s a thrill you can’t match anywhere.”

It’s also a great deal of responsibility to shoulder, and comes with a danger factor that keeps most CHP officers in cars. Of the 667 uniformed CHP officers in the Central Division, only a small percentage are motors. And only 10 CHP officers in Bakersfield ride BMW 1200s at work. Just 10.

So is it the danger that makes this career choice so manly?

“Well, it’s hard to look manly sitting in a car with boots and a leather jacket,” Hinojosa joked.

There is a certain amount of physical strength necessary to control the bike, but also strength to handle the heat.

“I once had an elderly woman ask me if I was in trouble,” he explained. “I asked her what she meant, and she said ‘Well, they put you on that bike in 100-degree weather.’ ”

He laughed off the woman’s remark because, for him, a little heat is worth the joy of being out on the open road.

But there is a difference for Hinojosa in the fun he has with his personal bike, and the duty he has for the State of California and keeping its residents safe.

In order to get to the point where a CHP motorcycle officer is keeping residents safe, they have to pass a rigorous set of tests.

Not just anyone can climb on the back of a bike and start patrolling. Just ask 42-year-old CHP officer Art Guerra.

“There’s a 50 percent fail rate,” he said of the Motorcycle Enforcement Training Program in Sacramento. And Guerra, who’s no rookie when it comes to law enforcement, didn’t pass the course until his third try.

“I was a corrections officer in 1994, but after a few years, I needed a change. I felt like I needed to be out and about. Then, eight years after becoming a CHP officer, I hit a wall—I was looking for something more exciting.”

That’s when motorcycles started to look pretty darn good.

“I practiced and practiced using a former officer’s bike. It’s a two-week course of intense training. After three days, I failed,” Guerra said with a chuckle.

He waited the mandatory six months before signing up for training again. During that time, he honed his skills. And yet, it wasn’t in the cards—he failed once more.

“It’s a lot of tight turning maneuvers, riding around strategically placed cones. And there’s a lot of high-speed stuff and U-turns on inclines, not to mention a lot of hard braking.”

Perhaps the most intense (and therefore most manly) test comes in riding on a high-speed track and performing a move that puts riding your bike down the street with no hands to shame.

“We have to lock our speed at 40 m.p.h.,” Guerra explained. “We have to let go of the handlebars, stand up in the seat, and come around a 90 degree turn. The bike will turn if you lean correctly.

“But it’s not as if we’re not given chances. It’s not as if you knock over one cone and you’re out—it’s more a mental challenge. Once you make one mistake, it starts affecting your head. And that’s what the trainers are looking for...making sure you’re not only physically ready, but you can handle the job mentally, too.” He passed the next time.

Guerra rode for nearly a year and a half before taking a job as an undercover auto investigator.

“I loved the job, but the whole time, I was thinking about riding a motor.”

So a determined Guerra went back to the training program. This time, he passed on the first try.

“I think I was born 100 years too late. I should have been an Old West cowboy, riding my horse and enforcing the law. In fact, at the inception of the CHP in 1929 all officers were required to ride motors. I’d say 90 percent was motors. Cars were for the supervisors. So there is that sense of tradition when I’m riding—riding a steel horse.”

And while a dirt bike isn’t really in the same class as a steel horse, that’s what 41-year-old Scott Whittaker got his start riding.

“I always loved motorcycles,” he said. This 15-year veteran of the CHP got his start much the same way Hinojosa did—he saw an officer riding a motorcycle and knew it was the role for him.

“I was helping a friend move to Santa Barbara and as we were driving through Ventura, a CHP on a bike drove by. I told my friends, ‘If I ever work for the highway patrol, that will be my job.’

“It’s looked at as a very physical job—you have to exert a lot of strength. That’s why it’s a career typically associated with men,” he said, adding that there is one female CHP motor in Bakersfield.

Shows like CHiPs did nothing but add to the “macho” reputation already given to CHP motors.

“When I was first a CHP motor, I rode a Kawasaki KZ1000, which is the updated model of the bike they rode on CHiPs,” Whittaker said.

Thankfully, not many officers take their cues from Erik Estrada’s “Ponch.”

They’re mostly focused on the inherent dangers of riding at high speeds with other, larger vehicles than about the perfect feathered hairdo.

“Our training is designed to put motors into situations where we’d have to act quickly and safely,” Whittaker explained. “We’re taught to recognize potential hazards.”

It’s about power and skill.

“And to some extent, the ego,” Whittaker admitted. “The more power and the bigger the bike, the tougher you appear. It’s how you want to be perceived as a rider.”

Let’s not forget about the a-word. Adrenaline.

The hormone that’s frequently desired by young men (to the point that they’ll jump off buildings with only a bungee cord tied around them just to get a hit of it in their system) is also a byproduct of riding a motorcycle.

“You do get a rush of adrenaline when you have to ride fast,” Whittaker clarified. “But we’re not doing this job for that. It’s the sense of freedom and the view around you, while you’re keeping people safe.”

Don’t get any of these guys wrong, though. They’re not exactly put off by the “tough guy” image they get.

“I suppose there’s that mentality,” Whittaker said. “Because as straight-laced as we all are, we want to at least look like we have a ‘bad boy’ image.”

Article appeared in our 27-2 Issue - June 2010