Eureka's top detective set for retirement
Chris Durant/The Times-Standard
Article Launched:11/21/2006 04:32:23 AM PST
http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_4698937
EUREKA -- Eureka Police Detective Dave Parris, who has been part of most of the high-profile investigations in the city for the past 21 years, is retiring next week.
Parris, a Eureka native, started his career with the Rio Dell Police Department in 1977, but always wanted to work back home.
”There were no openings in Eureka,” Parris said.
But after a year in Rio Dell and nearly two years working for the Fort Bragg Police Department, he was hired in Eureka as a patrol officer.
After five years on the streets, Parris was promoted to major crimes detective in 1985. He was promoted again, in 1992, as senior detective and then to his current position as supervisor of the Criminal Investigations Division, which not only oversees the detective bureau, but also Police Property Management and evidence technicians, in 2001.
He's worked under a number of different chiefs, without one complaint about any of them. “All of them were extremely professional,” Parris said.
And he thinks the next chief is coming from out of the area. Current Chief Dave Douglas' retirement takes effect in the next couple of months.
”New ideas will be good for the department,” Parris said.
Douglas is keeping Parris on as a reserve officer “solely for the purposes of continuing the work on the Karen Mitchell case and other pending, unsolved cases,” Parris wrote in an e-mail.
Mitchell, 16, disappeared in Eureka in 1997 and has never been found.
It hasn't been all police work for Parris. He has raised a daughter, who now attends Chico State University, and a son, who attends Eureka High School.
He's also been assistant scout master for Boy Scout Troop 54, with Humboldt County Coroner Frank Jager. “I'll admit that it is one of my more proudest achievements in the community,” Parris wrote.
The problems of Eureka have changed over the years, Parris said. Early in his career, alcohol was the big problem. “We used to have five to 10 DUIs a night,” Parris said. “Now it's an average of one at most.”
But there is a new problem -- methamphetamine.
”It's a very serious problem,” Parris said. “Just one example is people who commit burglaries to support their habits.”
A retirement from the Eureka Police Department doesn't necessarily mean a retirement from police work.
”I'm looking at some other avenues in law enforcement,” Parris said. “Maybe at another police department, in a more managerial role.”
He added it would more than likely be on the North Coast.
Parris' retirement is effective Nov. 30.
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