Scott McKnight

Scott McKnight was born and raised in Whittier, California and graduated from the University of California Davis.

He was hired by NBPD in July of 1983 went to the academy July through September 1983 at Golden West College in Huntington Beach with Craig Fox and Dave Stewart; they were the first to attend that facility instead of the academy at the LAPD.

His first memories of working that first year were “trying to make probation, survive Mike McEveny and the Snug Harbor after shift? in no particular order.”

He remembers his first assignment was working with Primary FTO’s John Freeman, Dave Byington and Dave Moon in the Patrol Division and has great memories of fun and tremendous camaraderie both on and off the job with them.

Local Narcotics and Orange County Regional Narcotics Suppression Program (RNSP) was his favorite assignment and those involved were Sgt. John Klein and Detectives

Dave Moon, Chuck Freeman, Craig Fox and Randy Parker. He remembers a l

ot of stakeouts, “buy-busts,” and eventually large-scale wiretaps of Cali Cartel drug

operators.
When talking about you’re not going to believe this, he says the “practical jokes I

committed, they actually promoted me to Lieutenant!” is most memorable for him.

He lists FTO’s John Freeman, Dave Byington and Dave Moon, and the best trainee he ever supervised, Randy Slaughter, as those that impacted his life at NBPD being mentors and those who made a difference in his time at NBPD.

Events that he remembers, i.e., cases, arrests, daily life at the station, etc. were the money laundering case involving Christine Mitchell, “Operation Telemundo,” and the John Van Uden homicide wiretap to name just a few.

Scott was involved in the Cop Bowl Football Games from 1985-1990. He says it was a rough 5 years as he was a running back and played defensive back. His biggest memory was “how sore I was the after the game!”

Scott has been married to Cathy for 34 years – they have two children (Shannon and Scotty) and two grandsons Jack and Maverick. Shannon is the mother of his grandsons and lives in Portland, Oregon and Scotty was drafted to the NFL “Jets” in 2011 and played for 2 years.

Now, Scott is the owner of Double Badge Investigation Inc., which is a private investigation company serving a large Newport Beach plaintiff law firm. He also is the Assistant Head Football Coach for J Serra Catholic High School located in San Juan Capistrano, CA.

Produced by Kelly Bennett