Howard Earle; Leader in Field of Police Science

Howard H. Earle, former Los Angeles County assistant sheriff who wrote three textbooks and taught college-level police science, has died. He was 66.

Earle died Sunday of cancer at San Gabriel Hospital.

A highly educated deputy who earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees at USC, Earle told The Times in 1972: “Today’s law enforcement officer is many things to many people. His work calls on him to have knowledge in many areas including law, medicine and welfare. He is called on to make split-second decisions that a court can take months to deliberate. In short, today’s officer needs all the education he can get.”

Earle, who was named assistant sheriff to Sheriff Peter J. Pitchess in 1972, joined the department as a deputy in 1951. As he rose through the ranks, one of his prime responsibilities became the Sheriff’s Academy, the largest peace officer training facility in the country.

He initially instituted an “authoritarian” training system--rigid military procedures, much like Army basic training. But his own detailed research, spelled out in his Ph.D. thesis titled “The Authoritarian Input Study,” completely reversed his thinking and the department’s training policy.

“It was astounding,” he said when he discussed the research with The Times in 1972. “The results were irrefutable. The non-stress guys are the best--and the happiest--on the job.”

Although he once had visions of succeeding Pitchess, Earle resigned from the department’s highest Civil Service post in 1975 in a dispute with his boss about Earle’s outside writing, consulting and lecturing on law enforcement.

Pitchess, himself accused by the Board of Supervisors of using sheriff’s helicopters for personal trips, claimed that Earle wrongly took a helicopter to a business meeting at the California Country Club in Whittier. But the sheriff said he was more concerned that Earle’s textbook business (most deputies were required to buy Earle’s books for police science courses in Southern California colleges) was a possible conflict of interest.

Earle’s textbooks included “Police Recruit Training,” “Police Community Relations” and “Student Instructors’ Guide on Police Community Relations.”

Earle went on to teach at Cal State L.A., where he chaired the Department of Criminal Justice, and at August Vollmer University in Orange, where he was dean of graduate studies.

He was also a consultant in law enforcement to groups in 83 countries, including the U.S. Commission for Law Enforcement Standards and the Ford Police Foundation, and was U.S. delegate to the 1993 Beijing International Police Science Research Exchange Program.

A widower, Earle is survived by a daughter, Debra of Sacramento; two sons, Lawrence of Rowland Heights and Brad of Upland; a stepson, Dean Pinsak of Australia, and seven grandchildren.

The family has asked that any memorial contributions be sent to the diabetes section of City of Hope in Duarte.

A memorial service has been scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday at the S.T.A.R.S. Center, 11515 S. Colima Road, Whittier.