Captain Joe Moses has 27 years with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, working in a wide variety of assignments in all 3 Bureaus of the Sheriff’s Office.  He began his career as a Corrections Deputy for 18 months before he transferred to the Enforcement Bureau as a patrol deputy.  As a patrol deputy, he worked all 3 stations including a 3-year stint as the Big Sur deputy, where he discovered his passion for Search and Rescue.  Thus began his 25-year career with the Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team. 

Throughout his career, he continued moving up the ranks from deputy to sergeant, then commander and now as Captain, always keeping his collateral assignment to the SAR Team.  During this time, he was able to lead the team to achieving the Mountain Rescue Association certification and notoriety as one of the top Teams in California.  Joe also served on the Dive Team for over 10 years and personally saved the lives of many people.

In addition, Captain Moses developed an expertise in disaster response and Incident Command Systems.  He was the Incident Commander of the Basin Complex Fire and worked as the Search Manager for the Tubbs Fire as well as the Operations Section Chief for the Camp Fire search operation which brought together 56 County SAR Teams, Disaster Search Dogs, Fire Units, anthropologists, and rapid DNA teams together in the massive effort to search over 1200 structures to locate thousands of reported missing people.   

Because of his reputation and experience as an Incident Commander, he was called in to run the search operations for both the Tubbs Fire in Sonoma County and the Camp Fire in Butte County where he oversaw up to 1,200 searchers each day of the operation.  He led that operation to full conclusion, searching over 1,000 destroyed homes and locating every one of the victims.

He continues to teach Search operation theory courses to SAR team leaders all over California and he has been called upon to run search missions throughout the State as far North as Mendocino County and South to Santa Barbara County.

Along the way, Captain Moses has earned a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from CSU Sacramento and a master’s degree in Emergency Services Administration from CSU Long Beach as well as a multitude of management level certificates.