Harry D. Penny,
Jr. has over twenty years of law enforcement experience. Harry Penny has been a police officer for the
Buena Park Police Department and a deputy sheriff with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. During
his ten year career with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department he worked jail division, technical services division
and spent five years in patrol as a field training officer.
Harry D. Penny has also been a Special Deputy in the US Marshal Service, working
in Court Security; and, a reserve police officer for the Chula Vista Police Department as well as the Barstow Police Department.
In addition to his domestic law enforcement service, Harry Penny served over 20 years with the United States Navy.
A Vietnam and Gulf War veteran, he retired from the Navy as a Chief Petty Officer (Chief Hospital Corpsman, Aircrew/Fleet
Marine Force).
Harry
Penny has authored several works including the book, Behind the Badge: The Funny Side of the Thin Blue Line
and the award winning (National Library of Poetry) poem I'm the One Called which has been published
in numerous military publications, over a thirty-year period and continues to this day. He has also published various articles
for small magazines and military publications.
According to the book description of Behind the Badge: The Funny Side of the Thin
Blue Line, “These stories are not the ordinary stories you find in the media or in books. The streets
of Los Angeles County provide experiences found in big cities on a daily basis. Facing a possible life-and-death situation
at any time, the officers often find occasions when the unthinkable happens. Whether rolling “Code 3” to answer
a robbery-in-progress call and later get your patrol car stolen by the suspect, or teaching a “rookie” how to
safely load/unload a shotgun only to have him blow off the top of your patrol car are stories that can only be told by those
who experienced them. How about jokingly making an impromptu funny script change while making a documentary film about a homicide
investigation only to have it end up in the film? These are all true stories written by the officers who experienced them.
Cops have a sense of humor too-a very dry sense of humor. Ride along with them as they show you the Funny Side
of the “Thin Blue Line.”