Hanging Up the Badge : Port Hueneme: Police Chief Robert Anderson, 58, retires after 27 years in law enforcement. He’ll miss being a cop, he says.

Port Hueneme Police Chief Robert Anderson didn’t intend to go into law enforcement after getting out of the Army in the early 1960s.

“I puttered around awhile and got married,” Anderson said. Then he applied with the Los Angeles County Fire Department--and was turned down.

“A county doctor told me they were hiring in the Sheriff’s Department,” Anderson said. “I said, ‘OK, I’ll take that.’ All I wanted was to get a job at the time.”

As it turned out, Anderson stayed in law enforcement for 27 years, a career that ended Friday when he retired from the Port Hueneme department.

Now, at age 58, he said he will miss being a cop.

“Every day is something different,” Anderson said. “You don’t have to worry about getting bored for too much of a time period. . . . Something is going to happen.”

Much has happened to Anderson since he entered the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in 1962. For the next four years, he worked in corrections, patrol and as a court bailiff.

Then he dropped out of law enforcement for four years to manage his family’s string of movie theaters, but eventually longed to get back into crime fighting.

He landed a patrolman’s job with the Port Hueneme department in 1970 and worked his way up to chief in seven years.

During his tenure, he said, the 20-member department has seen dramatic changes. At one time, drunkards were a typical problem; nowadays, officers are confiscating assault rifles. Officers who once completed records with pen and paper will soon be giving parking tickets with hand-held computers.

And the city’s crime rate has also risen in recent years. The city of 20,000 residents has Ventura County’s fourth-highest crime rate, according to FBI statistics. Crimes per 1,000 people rose from 33 in 1989 to 47 in 1991. Burglaries jumped from 146 in 1989 to 250 in 1992.

But the department received a 92% approval rating from residents in a city survey in November, 1990, just one point under parks and recreation.

Because of budget concerns, the City Council has ordered an $18,000 study to look at the possibility of abolishing the department and contracting with the county Sheriff’s Department. The council also voted to begin work on a ballot measure that would ask voters if they are willing to raise taxes to keep their department.

Anderson said he would hate to see the department go, but he is familiar with the budget problems that have prompted the study. He cut one officer last year, and the department’s only lieutenant position is being eliminated as Lt. John Hopkins assumes the chief’s spot.

Although the job has been stressful at times, it has kept him going, Anderson said.

“I can think of times when I was absolutely beside myself,” he said, recalling a period about 10 years ago during a string of homicides. “I got to one of those points where when the phone would ring at home, I’d jump out of my chair a mile.

“But you get through it. If you don’t have some stress, I don’t know what keeps you rolling.”

Ventura County Sheriff Larry Carpenter, who has known Anderson since the chief came to Port Hueneme, said they have had a good relationship.

“His greatest concern over the years has always been the people working for him and the residents of the city,” Carpenter said. “He took it home 24 hours a day.”

His wife, Lynn, 52, retired Friday as a secretary in the Ventura County Planning Department. They have two daughters and three grandchildren.

The couple said they plan to spend time traveling. The chief said he will indulge his hobbies of fly-fishing and playing with his motorized model planes.

Lynn Anderson said they are ready for retirement, but she recalled the time the chief was between police jobs in the late 1960s.

“He was miserable,” she said. “I told him to get back into it. You could see him looking at suspicious cars.

“He’s a cop and he missed it.”