With a combined 49 years of service, Los Alamitos Police Sergeant Richard DeLeon and Sergeant Sharon Kerbow recently spent their last days and retired from the department. DeLeon’s last day was Friday after working 30 years, and Kerbow’s last day was today after working 19 years for LAPD.
Both said LAPD has been like a second home and family to them. On his three decades of service, DeLeon commented, “It sounds like a long time, but looking back it’s a shorter time than I thought. I definitely feel like I’m leaving on a high note and that I’m going to be like a long lost friend.” Kerbow, said, “My best friends are here and I’ve made lifelong friends in the community.”
DeLeon and Kerbow both knew early on that they wanted to be police officers. DeLeon was 16 years old when he got to know some local LAPD officers while working at Casa Castillo restaurant. The officers encouraged him to apply and he began his career as a part-time cadet when he was only 20-years-old, going to the police academy a year and a half later. DeLeon had also graduated with his A.A. degree in Administration of Justice. Kerbow came to LAPD after being a teacher for 10 years with the Westminster School District and said she always knew she wanted to be a police officer at an early age before she began teaching. At 14-years-old, she had been a police explorer in La Habra.
DeLeon and Kerbow both shared an experience that stood out the most in all their years of service. DeLeon said in the mid-‘80s that there was a local woman involved in using and selling drugs who had been arrested numerous times. After 15 years, he hadn’t heard or seen her, but about 9 years ago she came to LAPD to see him. Initially, DeLeon didn’t recognize her. She was completely drug-free, sober, had a full-time job and was getting married. She had come in to thank DeLeon, and told him he made a positive impact on her life. “It was really rewarding to see her life turned around, resulting into something good and that I made a positive impact,” he said. “To this day, I still talk to her. It was a happy ending.”
For Kerbow, her most memorable experience was when she got an LAPD call from Casa Youth Shelter about a boy coming alone there from Corona. He had then left the shelter because he needed a parent to sign him in. Later, Kerbow got a middle of the night call at home that the boy was on top the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, was asking for her and was going to commit suicide by jumping off. She went there and talked him down. The boy then got taken to a counseling center and was alright. “Working with kids has always been really important to me,” she said. “I chose to work for LAPD because of Casa Youth Shelter and the school district.”
In service to the Los Alamitos community, DeLeon said he’s been supportive by working most every major event in town over the years, while Kerbow has been on the board of directors for Casa Youth Shelter and has also worked closely with WE CARE and Precious Life Shelter. “It’s been a great pleasure to work and serve the community here,” said DeLeon. “I loved what I did,” said Kerbow who has dedicated her whole life to children and crime victims. “I never had a job, and thought it (police work) was the greatest thing in the world. I love the city and have been very blessed.”
In their respective retirements, DeLeon and Kerbow still plan to serve others. DeLeon said he hopes to feed the hungry at his church, Calvary Chapel, and to go on missionary trips. Kerbow wants to get involved with juvenile diversion or social services. Both are looking forward to not having to get up at 2 or 3 a.m., and spending time with their families. DeLeon hopes to spend more time with his wife, Lorrain, and his 13-year-old son, Ian, while pursuing surfing and woodworking. Kerbow plans to spend more time with her great niece, Savannah, and plans to travel and go camping.