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CHP Meet a Dispatcher

Public Safety Dispatcher II Jennifer Walters

by Officer Angela Ditzenberger

Jennifer was born in Los Angeles, California, and from a very young age found she was fascinated with the law enforcement profession. She graduated from Ramon Convent High School in Alhambra and later attended Pasadena City College. At the age of 21, Jennifer decided she wanted to start her career. PSD II Walters at the podiumSince she always had a great deal of respect for the California Highway Patrol, she applied for a position as a Public Safety Dispatcher (PSD).

In 1994, Jennifer eagerly attended the PSD Academy in West Sacramento and settled into her first assignment at the Los Angeles Communications Center. Initially, she found the job overwhelming because of the tremendous amount of responsibility she felt to each and every officer she had contact with on the "radio." Every call seemed to be so critical! One day Jennifer got a 911 call from a hysterical motorist. He was reporting that a woman had been struck by a car and was continuously being hit by other vehicles. She noticed that he was extremely angry and was directing all of his extreme emotions toward her. Jennifer kept a level head, and a thought occurred to her that the mans unusual demeanor indicated he had somehow been involved in the accident. She calmly asked him if he had hit the pedestrian first. The man began sobbing on the other end of the line, and Jennifer found she was now consoling the previously irate man. Jennifer will never forget the gratitude the man showed her after the incident was over. She knew she could get through just about anything after taking that 911 call that day.

For a change of pace, Jennifer began teaching as a Public Safety Dispatch Instructor at the Clark Training Center in 1999, in Riverside. She quickly realized she had found her dream job. She felt she could become a good instructor like the ones she admired when she went through the training process. She moved to Sacramento to teach at the CHP Academys PSD Training Center in September of 2000. Though she misses her family, she has grown to love the Sacramento area. Jennifer dreams of becoming an officer, and has already taken and passed the written portion of the test. Since the CHP age limit has been changed from 31 to 35, she knows she has some time to prepare for the physical standards expected of her to attend the Academy. For now, she is enjoying her great career as a PSD II, which has enabled her to travel all over the Caribbean, to take the occasional trip to Las Vegas with friends, and to spoil her niece at every opportunity.

Would you like to learn about opportunities for women as Officers in the CHP?
View this page or call our special women's toll-free recruiting line
and talk to a female officer - 1 - 877 - WOMEN CHP

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