[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 18 (Friday, February 3, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E128]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING THE RETIREMENT OF GULF BREEZE POLICE CHIEF PETER PAULDING

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JEFF MILLER

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, February 3, 2012

  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Mr. 
Peter Paulding, Chief of Police of the City of Gulf Breeze, upon his 
retirement after forty years of honorable and decorated law enforcement 
service. For the past ten years, Police Chief Paulding has admirably 
served the citizens and community of the City of Gulf Breeze, Florida.
  Our community owes a large debt of gratitude to Police Chief Paulding 
for his many accomplishments. During his tenure as Chief of Police, the 
City of Gulf Breeze maintained one of the lowest crime rates in the 
State of Florida, helping to make it one of the top rated communities 
in the country. Under Chief Paulding's leadership, the Gulf Breeze 
Police Department implemented many inventive and highly successful 
initiatives. Chief Paulding was responsible for implementing the 
Volunteers in Policing, VIP, program, creating the Traffic Safety Task 
Force, and also implementing the first red light traffic enforcement 
system in the state of Florida, a system that has now been endorsed by 
the Florida State Legislature.
  During Chief Paulding's ten-year tenure, the Gulf Breeze Police 
Department was awarded the Rocky Pomerance Excellence in Policing Award 
eight times by the Florida Police Chiefs Association. Also recognizing 
the Department's community policing initiatives, the Department 
received the International Association of Chiefs of Police Community 
Policing Award in 2003 and 2010.
  Under Chief Paulding's leadership, the Gulf Breeze Police Department 
was the first law enforcement agency in the Northwest Florida Panhandle 
to receive accreditation by the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement 
Accreditation. In 2011, the Gulf Breeze Police Department was a 
finalist for the Motorola Webber Seavey Award for Quality in Law 
Enforcement for implementing a coast-watch program as a community 
policing response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. In 2008, 
as its Project Leader, Chief Paulding was responsible for the Gulf 
Breeze Police Department's recognition as a semi-finalist for the 
Webber Seavey Award for its Project Homecoming, and in 2006 the Gulf 
Breeze Police Department was yet again recognized as a semi-finalist 
for the Webber Seavey Award for its Volunteers on Patrol program.
  In addition to his role as Chief of Police, Paulding served his 
community in numerous roles, including President of the Florida Police 
Chiefs Association in 2010-2011. He will continue to serve the City of 
Gulf Breeze by overseeing the automated red light traffic enforcement 
program that he initiated.
  It is my honor to recognize Police Chief Peter Paulding upon his 
retirement as Chief of Police of the City of Gulf Breeze after a 
distinguished forty-year law enforcement career. I take this 
opportunity to commend Chief Paulding for making the Gulf Breeze 
community a safer and more enjoyable place to live, and I thank him for 
his valuable years of public service. My wife Vicki and I wish Chief 
Paulding, his wife Ruth, and their children and grandchildren all the 
best.

                          ____________________