(420) Bakersfield

Phone: (661) 396-6600

Address:
9855 Compagnoni Street
Bakersfield , CA 93313

Hours:
Monday: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday: Closed
Sunday: Closed

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) Bakersfield Area is proud to serve Bakersfield and Kern County by providing safety, service, and security to hundreds of thousands of residents, commuters, and tourists each day. As part of the CHP’s Central Division, the Bakersfield Area boundaries include mountains that reach nearly 10,000 ft. in elevation and a valley floor that is just slightly above sea level. The Bakersfield Area’s jurisdiction encompasses two major freeways (State Route 99 and State Route 58) and thousands of miles of surface streets in several unincorporated communities including: Rosedale, Oildale, Lamont, Pumpkin Center, and Glennville. The diverse terrain includes metropolitan, rural, and mountainous areas.

Kern County's diverse geography offers a wide variety of recreational activities, including: Horseback riding, water skiing (Lake Buena Vista, Lake Ming, Lake Isabella, and private ski ranches), auto racing at the world famous Auto Club Famoso Raceway, Buttonwillow Speedway, Bakersfield Speedway, the Kern County Raceway Park (an 85 acre NASCAR facility), hunting, paint ball courses, white water rafting and Olympic quality kayaking on the upper Kern River, snow skiing at Alta Sierra, numerous shooting ranges, hiking, on and off-road biking, camping and fishing in the Kernville and Lake Isabella areas, as well as many other activities.

The Bakersfield Area has patrol responsibility for a large portion of Kern County, which has a population of nearly one million residents. Kern County began 2020 with approximately 785,000 vehicles registered within the county. The City of Bakersfield is the largest community in Kern County and currently has a population of approximately 415,000 – making it the 9th largest city in California. The City of Bakersfield is considered one of the fastest growing cities in the State. 

The Bakersfield Area has 130 full time employees assigned to the area, including 95 sworn peace officers.  Six of those peace officers are assigned full time to the Kern Valley Resident Post, including one sergeant and five officers.  The Bakersfield Office operates with a clerical staff of six, an automotive and maintenance staff of three, and a communications center staffed with 23 public safety dispatchers and three supervisors.  Additionally, the Bakersfield Area hosts CHP Central Division personnel serving Kern County in the form of one hiring and recruitment officer, two commercial mobile road enforcement (MRE) Officers, three applicant background investigators, and six motor carrier personnel.  The Area has a VIN officer dedicated to conducting thousands of VIN inspections for the public annually, a School Bus Resource officer dedicated to the testing and certification of hundreds of local school bus drivers annually, and two Safety Service Officers who work closely with other State Agencies and traffic safety stakeholders.  Our Public Information Officer (PIO) conducts and attends safety and information events at local high schools, elementary schools, and community fairs and festivals.  The PIO can also be heard on local television and radio stations broadcasting safe travel information and offering traffic safety tips. The Area is proud of our award-winning Explorer Post, instituted in 2014, which currently has 13 CHP Explorers.  Ten members of the community serve in our Senior Volunteer Program; performing such functions as clerical duties, traffic safety at elementary schools, public affairs events, and helping officers on patrol.

The Bakersfield Area is currently utilizing a varied fleet of marked patrol vehicles, including eleven motorcycles and two specially marked patrol vehicles to assist in its efforts to provide the highest level of safety and service to motorists traveling within its area of responsibility.
The Bakersfield Area offers a number of programs aimed at keeping you safe on the road and on the highway. Contact our office for information on how to safely secure children in child safety seats, teach new drivers the challenges of the road, learn safe driving techniques for elderly drivers, or to learn tips for driving at night, in bad weather, or in high volume traffic. You can help us by driving defensively and safely, obeying posted speed limits, leaving enough room between your car and the car in front of you, avoiding driving distractions such as cell phones, and by being courteous and patient with other drivers on the road. Thank you for taking time to visit our website. Click on “Programs and Services” above to learn more about the many traffic safety programs the CHP offers.

The Bakersfield Area office is currently located at 9855 Compagnoni Street, Bakersfield, CA 93313, just off of SR-99. If you are traveling southbound, exit SR-99 at SR-119, continue straight through the intersection onto Compagnoni Street and the office will be on your right, just past the Starbucks.  If you are traveling northbound, exit SR-99 at SR-119, turn left onto SR-119 then left again onto Compagnoni Street; the office will be on the right.