American Heroes Radio

Laughs in Law Enforcement

Episode No. 34 Laughs in Law Enforcement

Harry D. Penny, Jr. has over twenty years of law enforcement experience.  Harry Penny has been a police officer for the Buena Park Police Department and a deputy sheriff with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.  During his ten year career with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department he worked jail division, technical services division and spent five years in patrol as a field training officer.

Harry D. Penny has also been a Special Deputy in the US Marshal Service, working in Court Security; and, a reserve police officer for the Chula Vista Police Department as well as the Barstow Police Department.  In addition to his domestic law enforcement service, Harry Penny served over 20 years with the United States Navy.   Harry Penny has authored several works including the book, Behind the Badge: The Funny Side of the Thin Blue Line.

According to Claude Anderson, he began drawing since the first day he could hold a pencil. Having been blessed with "limited artistic ability", he drew cartoons throughout grammar, high school and college. While serving in the U.S. Air force during the Korean War he had several cartoons printed in the Stars & Stripes newspaper.

After joining the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department, he continued with cartoons appearing on locker and briefing room walls. In 1972 he was asked to submit a cartoon for a new monthly law enforcement bulletin: The Star & Shield. After the first issued appeared, he was asked to keep drawing until he submitted a cartoon that was funny. His cartoons have also hit the locker rooms of the San Francisco PD and the Texas Highway Patrol. He was assigned to Firestone Sheriff Station where he worked for 12 years. Seven of those years he was a training officer.  Claude Anderson is the author of RadioCarToons:  The Training Officer.