The long-awaited book “Peace in the Valley: History of the Lompoc Police Department 1890-2008” by Joseph L. Carlson has been released. The author presented the completed book to the Lompoc Police Department and Lompoc Library at a recent Lompoc City Council meeting.

Carlson moved to Lompoc in 1983 and became a volunteer for the Police Department in 1985. Then-Police Chief Bill Brown, aware of Carlson’s background in library science, asked Carlson to research and document the history of law enforcement in Lompoc.

Carlson’s book provides the first formal written history of the Lompoc Police Department.

To research the book, Carlson spent hundreds of hours over several years reviewing Lompoc Library records, a process that stalled along the way under changing department leadership but was rejuvenated by former Lompoc Police Chief Pat Walsh.

“Peace in the Valley: History of the Lompoc Police Department 1890-2008” is available for checkout as part of the Local Author Collection at the Lompoc Library, and is being sold for $30 each through the Lompoc Police Foundation.

— Samantha Scroggin for city of Lompoc.