Full Notification

Retirement Announcement for Officer Paul Accornero
  Veteran Officer Served the Community for 27 years
 
Petaluma, California - The Petaluma Police Department is proud to formally announce the service retirement of veteran Peace Officer Paul Accornero.  Senior Officer Accornero has proudly served the Petaluma community for nearly 27 years and his commitment to serve this community as one of the finest Petaluma officers is second only to his commitment to family. 
Sworn into public service on April 13, 1992, Officer Paul Accornero has proudly served with distinction in a variety of assignments throughout his career.  Those assignments include patrol officer, bicycle patrol officer, canine handler, field training officer, gang team officer, dual purpose motorcycle officer, motor officer, motor officer instructor, major traffic collision investigator, driving instructor, dispatcher, and fleet coordinator.  He received his basic, intermediate, and advanced certificates from the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST). 
A local boy who grew up on the eastside of Petaluma, Officer Accornero knew the community and the community knew him, making it easy for him to connect criminal activity to known perpetrators.  Due to his extensive knowledge of the community, if a suspect was unknown, he knew who to talk to or where to find the information he needed to make an arrest, clear a case, or provide a tip or intelligence to a fellow officer. 
Out on the street, Officer Accornero’s relentless pursuit of criminals, coupled with his extremely keen street sense and a work ethic like no other, gave him a formidable reputation amongst criminals and scofflaws. 
Inside the organization, Officer Accornero quickly developed a strong reputation for teamwork, leadership, hard work, and service to others.  Within one year of service, Officer Accornero received numerous commendations.  Two of them specifically recognized his gifted talent of police work.  The first was from Judge Robert Dale to then Chief Dennis Dewitt at the annual Elk’s Law Enforcement night where the judge commended Officer Accornero’s witness and testimony skills at a recent trial.  The other was a formal commendation he received from the supervisor of the Narcotics Team recognizing his narcotic cases, criminal intelligence, and search warrants.  While on patrol he was also selected to the bicycle patrol team. 
 
In 1995, with no more than three years on the street, Officer Accornero was selected to the Police Canine Team.  Officer Accornero and his first canine partner “Bert” continued a tradition of excellence with police service dogs in Petaluma.  They trained hard for the street as a dual-purpose canine team for patrol work and narcotics detection.  They competed in and won numerous police canine competitions throughout California.  They amassed over 60 awards in both state and international competitions and received10 medals including six gold, three silvers, and one bronze in the California Police Olympics and World Police and Fire Games. 
The level of dedication and effort to training demonstrated by Officer Accornero and Bert went far beyond competitions.  On the street they were responsible for hundreds of violent suspect apprehensions, narcotics arrests, search warrants, and drug seizures.  Sadly, due to a rare and sudden illness Bert passed away in 1997 after only two short years of service.  Bert’s loss was hard for Paul, his family, the Department, and our community.
Officer Accornero was selected as Field Training Officer(FTO), the most important role within the Department training new police officers. 
With Bert’s memory and Officer Accornero’s passion for police service dogs, it did not take long for Officer Accornero to welcome a new canine member in his family.  Canine Roy, also a Belgian Malinois, was raised by Officer Accornero and his family and was specifically trained for a patrol and narcotics police canine work.  In 1999, a new canine handler position opened and Officer Accornero and canine Roy brought their relationship and training to the streets of Petaluma.  Officer Accornero and Roy served together between 1999 and 2007 when Roy began to enjoy retirement.  During their nearly eight years together, they continued to achieve great success both in canine competitions and on the street, and only surpassed the success and accomplishment by he and Bert due to the additional years of service.   
While serving as a canine handler, Officer Accornero continued to achieve great success.  One of his many accomplishments was that he became the first canine handler to also serve as a field training officer, a task that required the officer to train a new officer while also handling a police dog. 
Throughout his career, Officer Accornero consistently contributed to the Department’s traffic safety mission.  As with many assignments in his career, Officer Accornero set his sights on becoming a Traffic Motor Officer and achieved his goal in February 2010.  His training was quick as the necessary motor skills to ride a police motorcycle came easily to him.  After graduating from the police motorcycle academy, he went on to become the most proactive traffic officer in the department’s 160-year history.  Although issuing traffic citations is the least desirable job of any police officer, Officer Accornero realized traffic collisions killed and injured more community members than violent crime.  As such, he dedicated himself to enforce traffic violations that were causing most of the collisions in Petaluma, including speed, distracted driving, DUI, and right-of-way.  Officer Accornero realized enforcement was not the only solution to reducing collisions and he contributed significantly to community education opportunities and worked with city engineers to develop effective traffic engineering solutions.
Officer Accornero continued his commitment to training and requested to attend Police Motorcycle Instructor School.  After successfully completing instructor school, Officer Accornero became responsible for training new motor officers for Petaluma and surrounding agencies as well as providing in service training to the Motorcycle Team. 
After completing a full five-year tour in motors, Officer Accornero rotated back to patrol in 2015.   His passion for sharing his experience and expertise continued as he once again became an FTO to help train new officers.
After the City experienced at 60% increase in fatal and injury collisions, Officer Accornero again submitted a request for reassignment to the Traffic Team as a motorcycle officer.  He was selected to his second tour in motors in December 2017, where he continues to serve today. 
Throughout his distinguished and accomplished career, Officer Paul Accornero has exemplified our performance principles of professionalism, teamwork, organizational excellence, leadership, community, and a winning attitude. 
As evidence to this, Officer Accornero received more than fifty-one formal commendations from members of the community ranging from drivers who received a citation, crime victims, and even suspects.  His commendations reflected 27 years of selfless service to others as he participated annually the Special Olympics Torch Run, Tip-A-Cop fundraiser for Special Olympics, and his volunteer work in the community to help our youth at school presentations and with our senior citizens. 
His commendations from outside the organization were only shadowed by the more than eighty-three formal commendations submitted by his peers, supervisors, managers, and council members.  His service and recognition included his efforts to serve as an instructor for the Alive at 25 Program, teaching young traffic violators the dangers associated with being behind the wheel.  He was recognized by the Santa Rosa Junior College Police Academy for being an instructor, recruit training officer, and in-service trainer for new recruits and currently employed police officers.  His commendations went on to recognize his efforts with Every 15 Minutes Program targeting our youth and the dangers of impaired and distracted driving, and his years of service and volunteering to put on the annual Petaluma police canine competitions.  
Besides his many commendations for his excellent police work, many recognized his work to help dispatch by being cross trained to work in the communication center, his work to improve the mobile police radios for better officer safety, his efforts to return the patrol fleet to traditional black and white, his work to conduct background investigations for new police officers, his initiative to engage youth at Sonoma Raceway with the Beat the Heat Program, and the countless number of times he stepped up to help with any project including remodeling the former Washington Square storefront office, as well as being an instructor for the annual Petaluma Leadership Program and Community Police Academy.
A significant accomplishment that impacted all police officers was Officer Accornero’s work to modernize the patrol fleet with new equipment.  He was responsible for standardizing the setup of patrol vehicles, which made the patrol officers mobile “office” much more functional, safe, and consistent.   
During his tenure he was nominated and/or selected as the Police Department employee of the quarter thirteen different times and was nominated multiple times for Police Officer of the Year. 
In 1996 he received a Distinguished Service Medal for being selected as the 1996 Police Officer of the Year. 
In 2001, he received a proclamation from the City of Petaluma for his heroic actions following an officer involved shooting in his neighborhood.  He responded from his home and provided crucial information to responding units to set up a perimeter that would result in the capture of suspects. 
In 2015, Officer Accornero received a Medal of Bravery for his response to and apprehension of armed robbery suspects and for his heroic acts during a vehicle pursuit, both while on a police motorcycle. 
During my more than twenty-four-year tenure, I have never witnessed another officer accomplish more and provide better service to the community than Officer Paul Accornero.  He is an officer I looked up to and respected when I joined the force, and that respect and appreciation is even greater today.  I know his leadership has positively influenced our Department and left a legacy of pride and selfless service to others that will continue in his honor. 
Officer Accornero’s last day will be this Friday, January 4, 2019.  Please join me in thanking Senior Officer Paul Accornero for his service and congratulating him on his well-deserved retirement after 27 years.