After spending his entire 32-year career with Garden Grove, Police Chief Todd Elgin will retire

Garden Grove Police Chief Todd Elgin, who served his entire law enforcement career in the department, will retire after 32 years, the city announced Tuesday, Feb. 19. Elgin’s last day on the job is slated for April 20.

Elgin, 54, began in 1987 as a Garden Grove police recruit.

“My goal was always to be a police chief,” Elgin told the Orange County Register in 2014, soon after he was chosen for the position. “I thought if I do this, I’m going to go full tilt.”

Elgin, who is married with three adult children, has worked every assignment in the department, including the SWAT and gang units.

After completing the academy, he graduated to police officer in 1988. Ten years later, he was promoted to sergeant. He became a lieutenant in 2002 and captain in 2008.

“It’s been my deepest privilege to serve this great city,” Elgin said in a statement. “I will never forget what this community has meant to me.”

City Manager Scott Stiles said Elgin approached him about retirement last year. “We begged him to stay on a while longer,” Stiles said.

The police chief’s retirement announcement came less than a month after the loss of recently retired Garden Grove Fire Chief Tom Schultz, who died shortly after an unexpected diagnosis of cancer. Schultz had continued with the fire department in a consulting role.

During his tenure as chief, Elgin made it a goal to increase the number of sworn police officers serving Garden Grove – the fifth-largest city in Orange County, yet with one of the lowest police-to-population ratios.

Elgin helped the city promote the 1 percent sales tax increase voters approved in November. The city is now using some of the new revenue to hire additional police personnel to bring the total number of sworn officers to 179 – the highest in the history of the police department.

Elgin also expanded the department’s K-9 unit and created the Special Resource Team homeless task force.

Stiles said the city plans to replace Elgin with an internal appointment in the next few weeks.

“Chief Elgin has left the department in really good standing,” Stiles said, “with three solid police captains.”