JOINING THE RANKS — A 20-year veteran of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, John Peterson is Healdsburg Police Department’s newest police officer. Peterson started at the Healdsburg department on Dec. 2.
Sonoma County native brings years of experience
The Healdsburg Police Department has a new police officer, Officer John Peterson, a Sonoma County native and a 20-year veteran of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.
Peterson joined the Healdsburg department in late 2019 and had his first day on duty on Dec. 2 and is excited to learn more about the city.
“It is a nice community, it is a beautiful city, and prior to working here I’d come here because it has great restaurants and it is just a great place,” Peterson said.
In addition to the small-town community feel, Peterson said what drew him to the job was the shorter commute and the friendly people.
“I live in Windsor just five minutes away and my wife and family love coming up here and it is a small community,” he said.
At times he also worked with Healdsburg Police while he worked at the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.
“There are a lot of good people up here and that is what drew me to it — great atmosphere, good people,” Peterson continued.
While Peterson’s duties will vary, right now he is in training and has a few more weeks to learn the ropes.
“I’m in training, learning how Healdsburg does things and also patrolling the community, doing accident reports,” Peterson said.
Peterson has worked in law enforcement for two decades, however, he was on a different career path before he discovered law enforcement.
After attending El Molino High School and Santa Rosa Junior College, he received his bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from Sonoma State University and was going to pursue forestry.
“Somehow life kind of steered me to this. I was going to go in the forestry route then I got into law enforcement because it was local,” he said.
When asked what the most rewarding aspect of his job is, he said being able to help people and make them smile.
On the other hand, “Dealing with calls that cannot be resolved,” he said, is the most challenging part.
One of the more unique and difficult calls that he has responded to though, are incidents where people get locked outside their home, often by their children.
“A lot of people get locked out of their home or their kids get locked in the house and the parents get locked out and you have to coax them to open the door for mom and dad, that is probably the most unique,” Peterson said.
When Peterson is not working he enjoys spending time with his four kids and family.
“I have four kids, two are young ones, and I like to spend time with kids and family. Between those two they keep me busy,” he said
