Former Chief to Direct College Police Academy

Recently retired La Palma police chief David Barr will take over the police academy at Golden West College as interim director.

Barr, 53, a part-time instructor at the college, has been recommended for the job by the Coast Community College District Board of Trustees. He retired as La Palma’s chief Monday, exactly 32 years after he began his police career as an officer in Placentia.

The trustees are expected to vote on the interim appointment at their meeting Wednesday.

Barr has taught at Golden West since 1988, and at Fullerton College’s police academy since 1974. He becomes the first former chief to head the Golden West Criminal Justice Training Center.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for me to help others build their careers,” Barr said in a news release. “Obviously, I’ve enjoyed teaching for quite some time. And in some ways, this is just a logical extension of that.”

At Golden West, Barr has taught courses in supervision, management, community-oriented policing and problem-solving.

At La Palma, he started a program in ethics and accountability that earlier this year won an award from the National Institute on Ethics. He also started a volunteer program in which seniors check in daily to verify their well-being.

Barr was officer of the year in Placentia in 1967 and in La Palma in 1979. He won the La Palma Medal of Valor in 1973, the year he joined that department, and also has earned the California attorney general’s Certificate of Valor.