Retired Police Chief Broadbelt Dies at 71

James B. Broadbelt, a retired police chief who worked for 23 years in the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, died earlier this week of cancer. He was 71.

Broadbelt began his law enforcement career in Anaheim in 1950 as a department counsel. He then transferred to the Sheriff’s Department in 1951 and worked as the county’s first narcotics investigator.

He was promoted to captain of investigations in 1964 and left Orange County in 1974 to become police chief at Fort Bragg, in Northern California.

“He was one of the pioneers of Orange County law enforcement during the narcotics units’ growing years,” said Edward Dunacheck, who worked as a sheriff’s narcotics detective under Broadbelt. “He was a person of strong integrity. He had great honesty and loyalty to his profession.”

Before entering law enforcement, Broadbelt fought in World War II and was captured in Germany. He was released at the end of the war, and his service earned him the Purple Heart.

In the late 1960s, Broadbelt was sent to Washington as a delegate of the national Neighborhood Watch Committee, said his wife of 37 years, Joan.

Broadbelt retired from police service in 1978, moved back to Orange County and was a security systems consultant, his wife said.

After a four-year battle with cancer, Broadbelt died Sunday at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his mother, Connie, 93, and five children: Christine Schomer, Ronald James Broadbelt, Richard Carter, Michael Carter and Denise Anne Broadbelt.

Services for Broadbelt were held Thursday at the First United Methodist Church in Santa Ana.