APD Caleb Davis is Officer of the Year

Heather Young/Atascadero News • Atascadero Police Department Traffic Officer Caleb Davis stands in front of the Atascadero Police Department after he was named Officer of the Year.

ATASCADERO — Traffic Officer Caleb Davis was selected by his peers as this year’s Police Officer of the Year. He was awarded the honor at the Atascadero Elks Lodge in April.

“It’s a great award,” Davis said. “It’s nice to be recognized by your peer group. It’s a very nice award.”

Davis has worked for Atascadero Police Department for five and a half years. Prior to applying to APD, he was a history teacher in Southern California. He said the change came when he and his wife, Julie, decided to move to the Central Coast.

“I didn’t pick Atascadero on the map,” Davis said. “My wife and I really wanted to get out of Southern California. God was definitely looking out of us.”

After they decided to move to the area, Davis started looking for a job. He said he saw that the APD had an opening for an officer. He applied for the job, got hired and then went to the police academy. He started out as a police officer and was promoted to traffic officer after two years with the department.

While he said the traffic unit was composed of more officers in the past, but budget cuts have left Davis as the only member of the traffic unit.

Davis is the only officer that patrols on a motorcycle fulltime, though there is one other officer that patrols some of the time on motorcycle.

“That has been a great assignment for me,” Davis said. “Best job I’ve ever had — riding a motorcycle for a living.”

In addition to patrol on motorcycle, Davis is in charge of overall traffic safety and does a lot of traffic education, writes and manages grants, organizes special events and more.

“Without the education you’re not going to have the volunteer compliance,” Davis said.

To that end, Davis has organized a Bike Rodeo for Saturday, May 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. by Sunken Gardens. There will be two BMX demonstrations as well as safety training and more. Leading up the Bike Rodeo, Davis has been visiting city schools to give a bicycle training lesson to increase bicycle safety, as well as to get the children and their families to the event.

Davis himself has two sons, 2 and 4, whom he has been teaching bicycle safety already.