Police Chief Will Retire This Summer

After 32 years of police service, including 24 years in La Palma, Police Chief David S. Barr has announced plans to retire in midsummer.

“I believe the time has come for me to settle back, shift gears, turn to new directions and explore life’s next horizon,” Barr, 53, said.

He said he will continue teaching at Golden West College and Fullerton College, where he is an adjunct faculty member in the criminal justice programs.

Mayor Kenneth Blake said that City Manager Daniel E. Keen will be in charge of naming Barr’s successor when the chief retires, effective July 14.

Keen praised the chief, saying he “leaves behind a legacy of professional and personal accomplishments.”

Among them, Keen said, was the winning of an Integrity Pioneer Award for the Police Department from the Florida-based National Institute of Ethics. The award is for “excellence in [police] ethics.”

Blake said Barr’s supervision of police has had “a positive and far-reaching impact on La Palma.”

“Chief Barr has been a very active person in our community, involved in clubs and major activities,” Blake said. “He’s going to be a tough act to follow.”

Barr was named La Palma’s Citizen of the Year in February at the recent Cypress College Foundation Americana Awards Banquet.

He began his law enforcement career in Placentia 32 years ago and joined the La Palma department in 1973, rising to chief about four years ago.