Pete Perrin

Pete was raised in Wellsville, Missouri. His father died when he was young and he was raised by his mother. Pete said he worked from the time he was 14 and didn’t have time to participate in school activities or sports.

In 1972 Pete joined the Marines and served until 1976. He said the Marine life suited him and he enjoyed his time in the Corp. During basic training Pete came out number one in his platoon. After only two years he was promoted to Sgt. He was stationed in El Toro and spent some time in Japan. One thing the Marines did was to introduce Pete to the Southern California area and when he got out he stayed in Orange County.

When he left the Marines in 77 he decided to look into law enforcement as a career. His first stop was Laguna Beach. He tested with about 400 other applicants and came out number one. A small problem developed when Chief Sparks told him they always hired from their Reserves and this was the first time one of the reserves did not come out number one. They solved that by putting Pete in the Reserves and after 3 months an opening came up and he was hired on as a regular. Pete attended the Golden West Academy and came out number one in his class. Our very own retiree Neil Purcell was the Captain at Laguna. Mark Miller and Mark Everton also worked for Laguna at the time.

After 6 months on the job, an opening came up for a motor officer. Pete was still on probation but went to the riding tryout anyway. It was held on a Saturday and Pete ended up riding home on a Harley that day as the newest member of the motor squad.

Pete met two of Newport’s Motor Officers, John O’Connor and Bobbie Anderson in 79. They would stop and talk to Pete as they rode through Laguna on their way home from work. They told him that Newport was hiring and that they were getting a 19 and 17% raise over the next two years. Pete decided to check into Newport and got an appointment for an interview with Training Sgt. Carson. On the day of his oral he was called into work so he ended up doing his interview at the PD while he was in his Laguna Beach uniform. He was hired and started work June 25th of 79. Doug Parmentier was his first FTO.

Pete said if he believed in the idea that 3 is the charm, his career in Newport would have been short. In his first month 3 incidents made him think about going back to Laguna.

During his first night with Doug they were going to N/B on Jamboree when a female drunk driver ran a red light and they t-boned her car, Doug and Pete were banged up but they were back to work the next day.

The next thing happened a week later when he went to a training meeting in the auditorium and two Sgt’s sitting in front of him were making comments to each other and one of the Sgt’s got so mad he choked out the other Sgt. Pete said it wasn’t supposed to be a physical training seminar.

The third incident happened in Corona del Mar late at night when a call of a prowler ended up as a foot pursuit. It seems an off duty Newport fireman was looking in the window of his own house and ran when Pete yelled at him. A foot pursuit and choke out resulted in a discussion with Sgt. Mattson about what to do with the fireman. The fireman didn’t have any signs of being drunk in public. It was decided that they had to do something with him, so he was taken to jail for drunk in public. After going back into the field Pete was told to 10-19 the jail. Lt Jacobs talked to Pete about the charge and the fireman was released. Pete was starting to wonder what he had gotten into but he stayed and it all worked out.

Pete worked Patrol and became an FTO. He was on the SWAT team and served in the Chief’s office working for Lt Jacobs. Pete said that was when he learned that Jake’s rough demeanor did not extend beyond the PD. He and Jake became good friends.

In 86 Pete was sent to Polygraph school and became one of the department’s polygraph operators.

Pete worked Motors from 87 to 89, Burglary Det. 89 to 92 and another stint in Admin in 92. He was promoted to Sgt. in 96 and worked as a Patrol Sgt until he went into traffic

as a Motor Sgt. in 99. In 2000 he went into Detectives. In 2002 the 3% at 50 was passed so he decided to retire.

Interviewed by Stan Bressler