28 Years on Force : Westminster Police Chief Will Retire

The changing of the guard in the upper echelons of Orange County law enforcement--which in the past 18 months has included police departments of Santa Ana, San Clemente, Anaheim, Seal Beach and Huntington Beach--will continue Jan. 29, when Westminster Police Chief Don Saviers retires.

Saviers, 51, submitted his resignation to the City Council on Tuesday, capping a 28-year career on the force that began as a patrolman. He is considered an expert in crime within the Vietnamese refugee community, many of whose members have settled in Westminster following the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Born in County

Saviers, appointed to head the Westminster force in 1985, was born and reared in Orange County and was graduated from Anaheim Union High School.

Saviers said, following his promotion to chief by the City Council in 1985: “This is the culmination of what I started out to do. . . . I told everyone I wanted to be a police chief when I was still a junior in high school.”

Reasons vary for the recent resignations and retirements, which have totaled about a dozen in the county since 1985, including economics, professional problems, advancement and health.

Many of those who have left their posts were, like Saviers, well under age 60, had been chief for less than five years and said they planned to continue full or part-time careers in law enforcement.

Saviers joined four other Westminster officers in accepting economic incentives offered by the city to encourage tenured employees to retire, in an effort to save money. In Anaheim, Police Chief Jimmie Kennedy, 53, also retired for economic reasons, effective Dec. 31.

Kelson McDaniel, 50, resigned under fire last May after serving 18 months as chief of the San Clemente Police Department, following a vote of no confidence by members of the force. McDaniel is now serving as a $5,000-a-month consultant to the Westminster department. Before he became chief in San Clemente, McDaniel was chief of the Los Alamitos force.

Earle Robitaille, 55, resigned in February as chief in Huntington Beach, saying he would also seek work as a consultant. Stacy Picascia, 43, gave up his job as chief in Seal Beach in June on advice from his doctor and said he was interested in a judgeship. Saviers plans to work as a consultant.