By Mary O’KEEFE

In law enforcement, a public information officer (PIO) is the main contact between media and the law enforcement agency as well as performing outreach to the community.

A ceremony was held at the California Highway Patrol (CHP) facility in Altadena on Friday, June 14 to celebrate the promotion to sergeant of PIO Officer Jonathan Boyd and to say goodbye as he transfers from Altadena to Sacramento.

Boyd’s family, friends, members of other law enforcement agencies and community members were on hand to congratulate him and to wish him luck.

Boyd’s very proud mom and dad, along with other family members, joined him to celebrate his promotion.

“Jonathan is an interesting character,” said retired Altadena CHP Captain Moulton. “He was the first person to tell me that it’s actually possible to work 25 hours of overtime a day. I’ve learned a lot about math from this man.”

Current Altadena Captain Santiago praised Boyd’s connection with the community.

“I have heard nothing but good things about our area, about our PIO, and whatever he does he makes us look great,” Santiago said. He added that as a sergeant his impact with everyone, including other officers and staff, would grow.

Both he and Moulton said the sergeant test at CHP is difficult and it is an accomplishment to achieve that rank.

“It’s truly the hardest promotion to get at CHP,” Moulton said.

Before starting with CHP, Boyd was an educator. His experience as a teacher helped him when communicating what it is CHP does and what it offers when as a PIO he attended numerous community events.

For those in the area, CHP is the law enforcement that is responsible for everything on the highways/freeways and all roads in the unincorporated portion of Los Angeles County/La Crescenta-Montrose and Altadena.

Boyd, along with officers Keller and Bay, has concentrated a lot of his effort on traffic around schools. The Altadena office of the CHP is responsible for patrolling about 400 square miles, which includes Angeles Crest Highway, Angeles Forest Highway, portions of the Foothill (210) Freeway, Interstate 5 and State Routes 118 and 2.

This is a lot of area to cover but for Boyd, Keller and Bay priority has been given to schools.

Many schools are located within neighborhoods so school traffic competes with normal neighborhood traffic. Oftentimes drivers who are taking students to school forget this when they park or stop in front of driveways, speed up and down streets or make mid-street U-turns.

Around schools the officers have seen an increase in speeding, distracted driving and parking in red zones. CVW has been on several ride-alongs with CHP and has seen drivers ignore the rules of the road, some because they were in a hurry to drop off their student and others just ignore the rules “because everyone else does.” These are not excuses and officers have spent hours educating drivers on what they need to do to be safe.

In addition, Boyd and his fellow officers spend a lot of time reaching out to the community members and organizations, like CV Town Council, and attend legislative meetings.

Officers Keller and Bay will continue patrolling the area. CVW will soon begin its traffic series to highlight what drivers of all ages can do to make the roads safer.