Joseph Rogina is a special agent. He wears a uniform, carries a shiny badge, and drives around all day in a black and white car.
But the 30-year-old Santa Rosa resident isn't a police officer.
He's a geek.
And the California Highway Patrol wants to make sure drivers can tell the difference.
This week, the Best Buy store on Santa Rosa Avenue, where Rogina works as a computer technician, redesigned its "Geek Squad" fleet of four black and white Volkswagen Beetles after the CHP complained the cars looked too much like patrol cars.
"Obviously, we respect the Highway Patrol and the issue they are talking about is public safety, so we defer to their expertise," said Kevin Cockett, a spokesman for Best Buy's Geek Squad.
Best Buy launched its Geek Squad last year, offering 24-hour computer support to business and residential customers. Squad members are trained to fix computers, install software, remove viruses and perform other tech services.
Since the squad's inception, a handful of the company's mobile computer technicians have been pulled over by CHP officers and issued citations, Cockett said.
Section 27605 of the state's vehicle code says, "No person shall own or operate a motor vehicle painted ... to resemble a motor vehicle used by a peace officer or traffic officer on duty for the primary purpose of enforcing the (traffic laws)."
The latest incident was in June when a CHP officer ticketed a Geek driving on Interstate 680 near Walnut Creek, CHP spokesman Officer Mike Herman said.
While a Beetle's cute, curvaceous body style is a far cry from that of the Ford Crown Victoria favored by the CHP, the color scheme was nearly identical.
"Law enforcement cars are black cars with white doors and white tops and that was the same configuration as the Geek Squad," Herman said.
The CHP uses a number of different vehicles in addition to Crown Victorias, including Chevrolet Camaros, Ford Expeditions and Dodge Ram pickups.
Other law enforcement agencies use a wide range of patrol cars as well, including foreign cars such as Volvos, Herman explained.
It is possible, therefore, that in certain situations people could mistake the Beetles for police cars, he said.
"The rationale is that for a youngster or an oldster or someone driving at night, those cars would resemble police vehicles," Herman said.
Local police departments don't seem to mind the Geeks much. A Santa Rosa police officer pulled Rogina over for speeding recently and gave him a ticket but didn't have any problem with the Beetle's design, Rogina said.
"The cops don't care one way or another around here," Rogina said.
Making the Geek Squad technicians appear quasi-official was part of the company's marketing strategy.
The Geeks' uniform includes white shirt, black pants, white socks with black shoes and black clip-on tie, plus an official-looking "Geek Squad" badge many Geeks carry on their belts.
The uniforms were designed to remind Best Buy customers of two things - the intelligence and technical competence of NASA mission controllers and the authority and trustworthiness of police officers, such as those on the '60s TV series "Dragnet," Cockett said.
"We're trying to project safety and authority when it comes to technology," Cockett said.
The black and white color scheme of the Beetles was part of this effort to give consumers the impression of authority, but the company's intention was never to have its Geeks mistaken for police officers.
"We're experts in technology, but we leave all other types of enforcement to the great people at the CHP," Cockett said.
The company is in the process of repainting all 150 of its Beetles in California to comply with the CHP's request.
Instead of white doors, the cars now have black doors sporting the Geek Squad logo. The company worked closely with the CHP in redesigning the cars, and officials approved the new design, Cockett said.
Best Buy, the nation's biggest consumer electronics retailer, has about 700 stores across the country, but only the 150 Beetles at California stores are being repainted, Cockett said.
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