Oak Park gets new patrol officer

Oak Park residents tempted to make an illegal U-turn or to hit the gas to beat a yellow light may want to think twice before they do so.

The Moorpark California Highway Patrol Station has assigned Officer Randy Hosking, a 10-year veteran with the CHP, to patrol the streets of Oak Park and Santa Rosa Valley.

Hosking is Oak Park’s new community officer. The position was created by Capt. Cliff Williams, Moorpark’s commanding officer, to better respond to residents throughout unincorporated areas in East Ventura County.

Hosking wants his new position to be as much about community relations as law enforcement.

“I’d like to consider myself the kindler, gentler law enforcement here,” Hosking said. “My job description is to make myself available to the people living out here and make sure their concerns are being addressed.”

Although Hosking will split time between Oak Park and Santa Rosa Valley, he said he will spend his mornings patrolling Oak Park schools, particularly Oak Park High School and Medea Creek Middle School.

“I think that the parents who start to see me out here every morning will eventually be less apt to do something that they wouldn’t normally do,” Hosking said. “Seeing a black and white rolling through the area seems to be a big deterrent.”

Hosking said his primary goal is to maintain traffic flow and make sure commuters are obeying the local speed limit. He plans to target parking violators and the area’s other traffic hot spots in the afternoon.

Hosking, born in the San Fernando Valley, moved to Oregon at age 15 when his parents sold the family’s jewelry store and bought a campground. For 18 years, Hosking helped his parents run the family business before returning to Southern California in the early 1980s.

Hosking has two children, Amanda, 19, and Bradley, 15. He lives in Simi Valley with his wife, Laura.