Fast, but not furious for retiring CHP officer

It’s been a fast-paced life for Porterville native David Cates. But that’s to be expected. During his 25 years as a California Highway Patrol officer, fast was sometimes necessary.

“Everybody’s in a hurry,” he said, “everybody’s late,” and they try to make up for it on the road.

Cates spent most of his career on that road, ensuring the safety of hurried drivers by slowing them down. It was a job he’d planned to pursue early in life, but it took longer than he expected to make it into the CHP ranks. At 5 feet 7 inches, weight and height restrictions blocked his entry to the patrol. Instead, he joined the Navy, married, and worked construction and plumbing jobs in Visalia and Porterville.

His parents Jim and Doris Cates ran the family’s brick-manufacturing plant in Lindsay, and he also helped out there. But while working at the state hospital east of Porterville, he learned that things had changed at the CHP. When the patrol opened its doors to women, weight and height restrictions were modified.

He applied.

“It was a long process,” Cates said. “About two years.”

A written test, physical agility and health tests, oral exams and a background check resulted in his acceptance to the rigorous 21-week California Highway Patrol Academy in Bryte, a town known today as West Sacramento. By then, he was 30 years old.

“It was very exciting, to say the least,” Cates said. “Technically, all the odds were against me getting hired.”

Kings City was his first assignment, and he covered territory from Camp Roberts to Solidad. After three and a half years, he, his wife Gina and their two little girls moved to Indio. While still growing accustomed to their new surroundings, an unsettling home burglary did little to make the family feel welcome.

They put in for a transfer to the San Joaquin Valley, and on May 31, 1990, Cates signed on at the Porterville CHP Station 481.

Homecoming for the 1972 Monache graduate meant pulling over classmates, former teachers, and people he knew as a teenager.

“Not everybody wants to see you,” he said with a laugh.

An average day involved standing along the highway between a stopped motorist and cars rushing past at 65 miles per hour. Just once did he think he’d breathed his last when a hostile driver aimed for the open door of his cruiser with Cates behind it. Inches and seconds made all the difference, he said.

But personal danger isn’t what stands out in Cates’ memory; it’s the tragedies he’s rolled up on, one in particular.

“It was a fatal and kids were involved,” he recalled somberly. “I literally watched the life drain out of a 4 year old.” Though unable to stop the inevitable, he stayed close by.

“When you actually look them in the eyes and they check out on you, you remember.”

Another victim had been so mutilated, that Cates didn’t know until later that he had known the woman since they were children.

“That’s the bad thing about working where you grew up.”

He responded to an accident at Olive Avenue and Road 208 one afternoon to find his mother’s vehicle T-boned by errant young drivers who ran a stop sign. Fortunately, everyone, including his younger brother, survived the crash.

Of all his duties with the CHP, from road patrol and graveyard to the desk and paperwork, Cates said he enjoyed public relations the most. Working with people, speaking to organizations and schools, just being actively involved in the Porterville community, “I really enjoyed that.”

Cates’ community involvement extended to volunteer work with young people through Porterville’s First Church of the Nazarene where he and his family attended for nine years. A family man at heart, he’s experienced the stability that many in law enforcement find fleeting.

Only once has Gina voiced unrest, he said. After recent officer shootings, “She looked at me and said, ‘You know, I think I’m ready for you to be done with this.’

“She takes care of me,” he added, and he credits her with keeping him balanced and level, though he admits it helped to leave his work at the office.

That office will soon be left behind as well. June 11 marked his 25th year, and June 29 will be his last day in uniform.

“It’s kind of a changing of the guard,” said Sgt. Russel Cox. Cox arrived at the Porterville Station as an officer in 1996, where he worked with Cates until a promotion in 2002.

“This is pretty much the end of the old patrol,” he said of Cates’ retirement, noting that even Cates’ badge, which will be refurbished and retired with him, bears the old banner, “Traffic Officer.”

“Dave is the last one who was here when I came in.”

Cates and his wife will be leaving the fast-paced West Coast lifestyle for the milder climes and clearer air they discovered while visiting friends in Tennessee. Not one to sit on the porch, Cates said he hopes to offer his services to catastrophe teams that work disaster relief in the nation’s south central states, and maybe find a part-time job.

But it may take a while before he stops reaching for his lights and siren when passed on a Tennessee roadway by speeding vehicles.

“Everybody’s a NASCAR driver back there.”