Chief Ron Lawrence was appointed to lead the Costa Mesa Police Department in September of 2021 and has over three decades of leadership in law enforcement.

Prior to his arrival in Costa Mesa, he served as Chief of Police for the Northern California City of Citrus Heights on Oct. 31, 2016, overseeing a department of 157 employees and serving a population of nearly 90,000.

Chief Lawrence has held many assignments throughout his 30-plus year career, including court bailiff, jail deputy, patrol officer, field training officer, motorcycle officer, traffic officer, street crimes and vice officer, internal affairs investigator, personnel and training, watch-commander, division-commander as well as serving as a sergeant and lieutenant.

Chief Lawrence is a transformational leader with experience building diverse police departments through recruitment, promotions, and succession planning. He knows how to collaborate with the community to ensure community goals are achieved, including reducing crime and traffic collisions, while building community trust.

In his early years, he grew up on a rice farm in Northern California. In 1989, he graduated from the Sacramento Sheriff’s Academy beginning his long career in law enforcement. Prior to being named Chief in Citrus Heights, Lawrence served as both the Police Chief and Captain of the City of Rocklin.

Elected unanimously by his Police Chief colleagues to serve as the 54th President of the California Police Chief’s Association (CPCA), Chief Lawrence is respected throughout the state, and for the 2019/2020 term he represented all 334 municipal Police Chiefs in the state of California.

As President of the California Police Chiefs Association, he served as media spokesperson, represented CPCA with the Governor and State Attorney General, and worked closely with legislators at the State Capitol on critical public safety legislation.

He served on the CPCA Board of Directors for ten years from 2011 to 2021, chairing several crucial committees. Chief Lawrence was selected by the CPCA Board to represent the State of California as its sole representative to the State Association of Chiefs of Police (SACOP), which grants each state one delegate as a liaison to the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). Chief Lawrence has held this prestigious appointment since 2016.

Chief Lawrence currently serves on the Criminal Justice Advisory Committee with the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC); a non-partisan, non-profit think-tank dedicated to informing and improving California public policy. He also sits on the Board of Directors for the Western States Information Network (WISN), one of six U.S. regions within the national Regional Information Sharing System (RISS), a law enforcement information complex funded by the U.S. Congress.

In 2013, Chief Lawrence was invited to teach at William Jessup University as an Adjunct Professor in the Public Policy Division, where he taught Introduction to Criminal Justice, as well as Criminology.

Chief Lawrence has received extensive specialized police training throughout his career in a variety of specialized topics, and his formal education includes a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice and a Master’s Degree in Leadership. He also attended the FBI National Academy and the POST Command College for law enforcement executives.

Chief Lawrence is a dedicated public servant with a passion for serving the community.