Driven to Excellence

For most of the year the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department uses the wide expanses of Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in Pomona to teach its recruits the special skills needed to drive patrol cars.

But for three weeks each fall--when the fair is in full swing--the department uses the U.S. Forest Service aircraft ramps at Fox Field in Lancaster.

At the airfield, recruits in black-and-white patrol cars race, screech and skid in the shadows of two vintage aircraft that are now used as bombers to fight brush and forest fires.

They are trained by watchful instructors--among them deputies Danny Tucker, Rick Emerton, Richard Frempter and Cheryl Newman--who have been on the streets and know the hazards of emergency-vehicle driving.

“You find out your limitations very quickly,” said recruit Don Subler.

Recently the recruits of Class 294 put in 10-hour days, four days a week, at the facility, beginning each day at 6:30.

Civilian training had prepared recruit Dave Vivona for a few runs on the “skid pan”--a section of roadway that was purposely wetted down to cause the cars to swerve out of control.

“I remembered what I learned about driving in the snow and ice back home in upstate New York,” he said.

The department’s training has a high rate of success, said Sgt. George Grein, a supervisor. In the last nine years, only five recruits have flunked out.

Newman, the newest instructor, said she enjoys being the only woman in the unit. She works with the recruits by mixing a soothing voice with straightforward advice.

Watching one car drive deftly in and out of the skid pan, she spoke into her two-way radio:

“Way to go, car 8! You caught that skid and straightened out nicely. Well done!”