Peter J. Pitchess (February 26, 1912 – April 4, 1999) was the 28th

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the List of United States counties and county equivalents, most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 202 ...

, serving from 1958 to 1981. He is credited with modernizing the

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), officially the County of Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, is a law enforcement agency serving Los Angeles County, California. LASD is the largest sheriff's department in the United States a ...

, turning the department into the sixth-largest police department, and the largest sheriff's department, in the United States.

Early life and career

Pitchess was born in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

, Utah. He was orphaned as a child, and attended Bingham High School in

Bingham, Utah Bingham Canyon was a city formerly located in southwestern Salt Lake County, Utah, United States, in a narrow canyon on the eastern face of the Oquirrh Mountains. The Bingham Canyon area boomed during the first years of the twentieth century, ...

. He received his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree from the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

, and his

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

degree from the university's

law school A law school (also known as a law centre/center, college of law, or faculty of law) is an institution, professional school, or department of a college or university specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for b ...

, earning his law school tuition by working in the mines in

. Pitchess started his career as a

special agent In the United States, a special agent is an official title used to refer to certain investigators or detectives of federal, military, tribal, or state agencies who primarily serve in criminal investigatory positions. Additionally, some special ...

with the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

(FBI), spending 12 years with that agency, in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

;

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

;

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

; and

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. He rose to head the criminal investigative section of the Bureau's Los Angeles field office, resigning in 1952. Pitchess spent a year in the private sector, taking a position as chief of security for the

Richfield Oil Company Richfield Oil Corporation was an American petroleum company based in California from 1911 to 1966. In 1966, it merged with Atlantic Refining Company to form the Atlantic Richfield Company (later renamed ARCO). History The Richfield Oil Corporat ...

, before becoming

under-sheriff An undersheriff (or under-sheriff) is an office derived from ancient English custom that remains in, among other places, England and Wales and the United States, though performing different functions. United States In American law enforcement, ...

, reporting to sheriff Eugene Biscailuz. He was elected Sheriff in 1958 upon Biscailuz's retirement. During Pitchess' 23 years as sheriff, he eliminated the county's informal

posse comitatus The ''posse comitatus'' (from Latin for "the ability to have a retinue or gang"), frequently shortened to posse, is in common law a group of people mobilized to suppress lawlessness, defend the people, or otherwise protect the place, property, ...

, introduced the use of

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

s for

car chase A car chase or vehicle pursuit is the vehicular overland chase of one party by another, involving at least one automobile or other wheeled motor vehicle, commonly hot pursuit of suspects by law enforcement. The rise of the automotive industry i ...

s and crowd control, and set up the Special Enforcement Bureau ("SEB"), one of the first

SWAT A SWAT (''Special Weapons and Tactics'') team is a generic term for a police tactical unit within the United States, though the term has also been used by other nations. SWAT units are generally trained, equipped, and deployed to res ...

teams in the United States. He linked the geographically separated offices and jails with Teletype machines for faster communication, and computerized the offices records in the 1960s. Pitchess also put in place a program allowing smaller communities to contract with the sheriff's department as an alternative to establishing their own police departments. Upon Pitchess' retirement, the

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (LACBOS) is the five-member Board of Supervisors, governing body of Los Angeles County, California, United States. History On April 1, 1850 the citizens of Los Angeles elected a three-man Court of Se ...

designated him as "sheriff

emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

for the rest of his life." In addition to his law enforcement work, Pitchess served on the Los Angeles County Civil Defense and Disaster Commission during the nuclear crisis in the early 1960s. The position was important because it was at the time of the peak of the cold war nuclear scare.

Death and legacy

Pitchess died at his home in

Newport Beach Newport Beach is a coastal city of about 85,000 in southern Orange County, California, United States. Located about southeast of downtown Los Angeles, Newport Beach is known for its sandy beaches. The city's harbor once supported maritime indu ...

on April 4, 1999, at the age of 87, from

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood. Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...

. He is buried in Pacific View Memorial Park in

Corona del Mar Corona del Mar (Spanish for "Crown of the Sea") is a seaside neighborhood in the city of Newport Beach, California. It generally consists of all the land on the seaward face of the San Joaquin Hills south of Avocado Avenue to the city limits, a ...

, California. His name is well known as a party in a famous California legal case entitled ''Pitchess v. Superior Court'', which entitles a defendant to obtain records of public complaints, using what is now known as a Pitchess motion, about the use of excessive force by police officers. Pitchess' office had claimed that such records were proprietary, and had refused to provide them following a

subpoena duces tecum A ''subpoena duces tecum'' (pronounced in English ), or subpoena for production of evidence, is a court summons ordering the recipient to appear before the court and produce documents or other tangible evidence for use at a hearing or trial. In ...

. His petition was ultimately denied by the

California Supreme Court The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sac ...

in a 7-0 decision. The

Peter J. Pitchess Detention Center Peter J. Pitchess Detention Center, also known as Pitchess Detention Center or simply Pitchess, is an all-male county detention center and correctional facility named in honor of Peter J. Pitchess located directly east of exit 173 off Intersta ...

in Los Angeles County is named after him.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pitchess, Peter J. 1912 births 1999 deaths Los Angeles County, California, sheriffs People from Newport Beach, California 20th-century American politicians People from Bingham Canyon, Utah