When UC Davis police officers Lynn Matranga and Jennifer Roth were recently dispatched to a disturbance in a campus classroom building, the duo handled their assignment like they'd been working together forever.

Matranga, a 20-year veteran of the force, and Roth, a rookie, moved quickly to help the angry, distraught woman they found on the scene. Matranga, who arrived in the building first, helped calm the woman. They both put the woman in handcuffs, and Roth drove her to a mental health clinic for evaluation.

Despite their differing law enforcement experience levels, the duo performed their task seamlessly, Matranga and Roth recalled Monday.

However, that's not surprising, Matranga said. She's not only one of Roth's colleagues; she's her mother.

"We've been together her whole life," Matranga, 63, said. "We read each other pretty well."

Roth and Matranga, always close, are delighted to work together. As far as they know, they are the only mother-daughter team in the area working on the same police force.

UC Davis Police Chief Calvin Handy hasn't heard of a comparable pair, either. He's certainly glad to have them both on board.

"They are both very dedicated and very professional police officers," he said.

The two not only have a similar mindset, they also strike a similar pose: trim builds and long hair - Matranga's albeit grayer - pulled up and back tightly behind their ears.

Different paths

Matranga's proud of her 37-year-old daughter, a longtime campus dispatcher who recently graduated from the Sacramento City Police Academy. Roth is now in the midst of a 20-week field training assignment that she will complete in May.

"I feel comfortable with her there out on the scene," Matranga said. "I know how she handles herself in a crisis situation."

But Matranga, whose entire career has been spent in law enforcement, wasn't always sure she wanted her daughter to be a police officer. Nor was Roth certain she wanted to enter law enforcement.

For Matranga, safety was a factor. She enjoyed having Roth work in the dispatch office where she wouldn't be exposed to any of the dangers of a police job.

"As a mother I thought, 'Gee, she's my little girl,'" she said.

Matranga, who also has a son, Fred Roth, wondered: "Can she handle it?"

Growing up in Sacramento, Roth resented the fact that her mother was a police officer.

"I was like, 'ewww,'" she said. "I didn't want to do that. As a teen-ager, police represented authority. But when you grow up your attitudes and perceptions change."

Roth originally embarked on a career as a singer, then served as a flight attendant for Continental Airlines. Finally in 1994 she came to UC Davis.

Service focus

For a while, Roth was content to work on the law enforcement sidelines, dispatching officers to 911 calls. A couple years ago, however, she began to crave a job with more variety and action.

"I wanted to work in the field and be more hands-on," Roth said. "You have more freedom and more fun."

She is also bent on changing the negative connotations some people, especially children, hold about the role of police in the community.

To that end, Roth and her mother visited Sacramento schools last week for the Read Across America celebration of Dr. Seuss's birthday.

Handy said he was especially glad that Roth seems to have picked up her mother's interest in community service.

Mother-daughter moments

Working on the same force has made for some unique mother-daughter moments, Roth and Matranga said.

One recent morning, the two found each other side-by-side inspecting their patrol cars. A daily check requires each officer to make sure his or her equipment and weapons are in good working order. The routine task, however, was something neither Matranga nor Roth ever imagined doing together. But on this morning the chore seemed natural.

"We were out there racking our shot guns shells," Matranga said. "We laughed. I thought it was hysterical."

Other times, mother and daughter have found themselves shopping, not at Macy's or Nordstrom, but at uniform and equipment stores.

Roth will always be her daughter, but their recent work as a team has also allowed Matranga to look at her as a valued co-worker as well.

During a call, Matranga said, "I look at (Roth) in uniform. I get the same feeling as an average citizen. They don't look at the face, but at the uniform and the badge."

She can still, however, get protective of her daughter, despite knowing how capable Roth is.

During an assignment the duo is all business, Matranga said. Later, her maternal instincts kick in. she said. "After it's all over, I say, 'Are you okay?'" •