Welcome from the Chief

As Commander of the California Highway Patrol’s Golden Gate Division, it is my responsibility to oversee all CHP operations within the nine Bay Area counties. As a Division, our goal is to provide the highest level of safety, service, and security to everyone that travels on our roadways, and to ensure that the level of service the public has come to expect from the CHP does not waver. I have spent my career serving communities across the great state of California, and I am grateful for the opportunity to continue that service in this position.

    Chief Don Goodbrand

​The Bay Area  |  CHP - Golden Gate Division

The San Francisco Bay Area is a unique and busy metropolitan area that brings many challenges to both the motoring public and the CHP officers who patrol it. With the Bay Area being a major tourist area and host to many different events, traffic volumes on freeways fluctuate on any given day. Patrol officers provide traffic enforcement and general law enforcement services to millions of motorists on extensive highway structures that include interstate freeways, U.S. Routes, State Routes, highways, and expressways. Interstate transportation of commerce, recreational travel, and the overall traffic volume acts as large contributors to the Bay Area's economy and its transportation issues. In order to facilitate these transportation issues, the Bay Area has engineered one of the most complex freeway and highway systems throughout the state.

In order to accomplish our mission, our CHP personnel are committed to our organizational values of respect for others, fairness, ethical practices, and equitable treatment for all who serve. This is the foundation of our pledge to public safety and service. Our personnel must be highly trained as they are called upon to patrol the metropolitan elevated freeway structures and bridges; as well as, the rural farming and agriculture communities. Eight toll bridges, more than any other CHP Division in the state, are the arteries that move the lifeblood of commercial and commuter vehicles over the bays. The CHP accepts the responsibility for the efficiency of vehicular travel upon freeways and the service to its motoring public to ensure their utmost protection.

Golden Gate Division takes this challenge completely, focusing enforcement of the California Vehicle Code, particularly in areas of speed, safety belt/child restraints, and driving under the influence. In addition to enforcement, officers patrol state properties and educate the motoring public on the state traffic laws through community events and the installation of child restraints as a means to maintain and emphasize traffic safety. When our education programs fail to gain compliance, our proactive enforcement serves as a reminder to obey the law. Officers assigned to road patrol duties, vigorously enforce the California Vehicle Code to modify unlawful behavior and enhance traffic safety for all motorists, passengers and pedestrians. Inspection facilities are in constant operation focusing enforcement of laws, regulations, and rules as they relate to the safe operation of commercial vehicles and drivers. Answering "911" calls, assisting allied agencies, and dispatching officers is the great responsibility that rests on our sole Communications Center. Our officers are dispatched into some of the most dangerous streets in California to assist with civil disturbances, natural and manmade disasters, and incidents needing additional emergency law enforcement responses. The intention of Golden Gate Division is to keep you safe on the road, twenty four hours a day, seven days per week, and through all four seasons of the year by providing the highest levels of safety, service, and security. ​

More Than a Career  |  Join the CHP Family

Are you looking for a way to make a positive difference in your community as a CHP Officer or Public Safety Dispatcher? You can contact Officer Miguel Camarena at 30recruitment@chp.ca.gov with questions regarding a career with the California Highway Patrol or go to JointheCHP1000.com and apply today.

A Bridge Suicide is Suspected... What do you do now?

Information for families and friends who may have committed suicide from a Bay Area bridge.