The California Highway Patrol Academy is located on the west side of California’s Capitol city. On those same grounds lies the CHP Museum, which is open to the public with prior notice.

The museum’s chairman, Rick Mattos, was a member of the force for over 30 years, from 1979 to 2010. After graduating from West Sacramento’s academy, Mattos served as a CHP officer in Baldwin Park, Oakland, Napa and San Francisco.

“For me, the state of California and the CHP in particular have given me quite a bit. This is my way of giving back,” Mattos proclaimed. “None of our people are paid, we’re all volunteers. It’s a way for me to pay back to California for what they’ve done for me.”

During his time on the force, Mattos joined the California Association of Highway Patrolmen, working his way up from a board of directors member to president in his final five years from 2005 to 2010.

“When the current academy was built in 1976, there was room set aside for a museum and it was built at that time,” Mattos recalled. “That museum was maintained by the academy and was other duties as assigned so sometimes it got attention and other times it didn’t. I wrote a book about the CHP and while I was researching that, I saw the state of the museum. It was a nice place but pretty stagnant and nobody was taking care of it.

“In 2009, I joined together with (vice-chairman) Spike Helmick and a few other people to create a CHP Museum Foundation independent of the department to take care of the museum’s content.”

While the museum being located on the academy’s campus is convenient for safety, it also makes its accessibility challenging at times.

“It’s a good and bad thing. It’s good that we have a secure location and that the department can access it. When they have visitors from other countries, they bring them in and look at our museum,” Mattos explained. “The downside is because it’s on the grounds of the academy, although its open to the public, we have to provide somebody to be an escort. We’re open to the public with prior notice so we can get one of our volunteers here to walk you through.”

Mattos and museum board members still spend hours cataloging all the artifacts frequently. For the chairman, he enjoys doing it because he never knows what he may find.

“Every time I open one of the storage boxes I find something unique and fascinating. It’s like a big treasure box! Our museum showcases a lot of the other functions that CHP does other than writing speeding tickets,” Mattos explained. “I think the public could have a greater appreciation of law enforcement in general and the highway patrol specifically. It’s good for the appreciation of law enforcement and the CHP.”

The museum is open to the public weekdays, excluding holidays, located at 3500 Reed Ave. in West Sacramento. The hours of availability vary based on the academy’s schedule. The museum asks for notice one week prior to a desired visit. More information can be found on the museum’s website at chpmuseum.org or email chpmuseum@gmail.com.

“It’s important for people to remember that we are a family. I’ve been retired for a long time and I still consider it ‘we.’ The CHP is family and is California’s state police,” Mattos said. “Wherever in the state that there is an emergency, from fires to floods to earthquakes, the CHP will be the ones to respond because they can move hundreds of officers in a matter of hours to anywhere in the state. I think the CHP tends to have a lower profile because highway patrol sits on the highway, but it’s much more than that.”