[img]1663|right|Chief Pedersen||no_popup[/img]One month before marking his eighth anniversary as Police Chief, Don Pedersen this morning announced his retirement from the Culver City department.
The 53-year-old Mr. Pedersen, who restored stability and survived a major uprising by the police union four years ago, is not rocking chair-bound.
He will join the precedent-setting staff of new County Inspector General Max Huntsman, overseeing the deeply troubled County Sheriff’s Dept.
Mr. Pedersen, who came to Culver City from Signal Hill where he had been the chief, could leave his Duquesne Avenue office as early as next week.
Whenever he departs, Asst. Chief Scott Bixby, 54, will be in charge. Although a selection process will crank into motion, Mr. Bixby is favored to prevail whenever the City Council votes on Mr. Pedersen’s successor.
Mr. Pedersen told the newspaper this morning that two immediate points of pride came to mind, the historic amount of direct community involvement with the Police Dept. “and the number of crimes solved, especially the Paul Bilodeau case.” (Mr. Bilodeau was the City Hall-hired consultant who was murdered in Fox Hills after working hours while alone in a construction trailer during the building of a new Fire Station No. 3.)
Chief Pedersen said the pre-dawn that Lt. Curt Massey was killed in a freeway accident — when his car was struck by a wrong-way drunk driver – “was my worst day.”
While protecting Culver City’s reputation as one of the safest communities in California, Mr. Pedersen brought order to a department of just under 100 officers – not that he won popularity contests in the process.
For the 2½ years between legendary Ted Cooke’s retirement in November 2003 and Mr. Pedersen’s hiring on the first Monday in May 2006, the Police Dept., almost changed chiefs and underwear at the same gait.
Through 28 months of faces-changing, the turnstile of chiefs spun until Mr. Pedersen was appointed.
