COSTA MESA : Pioneer in Police Education Honored

Retired educator Derald Hunt will be honored by Gov. Pete Wilson with a lifetime achievement award recognizing his pioneering work in establishing statewide police officer training programs.

Hunt, 72, established the state’s first college degree program in police science at Orange Coast College 34 years ago.

He retired as head of the Administration of Justice program at Golden West College in 1978.

Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates was one of his students.

“He’s certainly been a big part of my life,” said Gates, who was 24 years old when he studied with Hunt at Orange Coast College in 1961.

“When you look back over his lifetime involvement in the law enforcement world, he’s truly been instrumental in making a profession out of our business.”

Hunt was nominated for the first Governor’s Award For Excellence in Peace Officer Training by the California Assn. of Administration of Justice Educators.

He will receive the honor in Sacramento next week.

The Rialto Police Department will receive the organizational award, and California Highway Patrol Lt. Gordon Graham will be honored for individual achievement.

Prior to his teaching career, Hunt spent 10 years with the Riverside Police Department, where he became sergeant of detectives.

From 1955 to 1960, he established police training centers across California for the state Department of Education.

“In those days, there was no organized training anywhere, except for some little programs the FBI used to put on,” Hunt said.

He also established the Criminal Investigation Institute in Anaheim in 1964 and the Orange County Basic Peace Officers Academy, which he supervised from 1961 to 1978.

As society changed, Hunt said, training programs had to adapt to the police officer’s expanded role.

“The police have become much more involved in social engineering, for lack of a better term,” Hunt said. “It requires a lot of sociological knowledge that we didn’t have to know in those days.”

Hunt will receive the award Jan. 12 at the Sacramento Community Center during a meeting of the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.