Behind the Badge
Garden Grove isn’t just a beat for Lt. William Allison – it’s home.
A Bolsa Grande High School alumnus, Allison was interested in becoming a police officer since he was young because of his mother’s 31-year career as a dispatcher for the Los Angeles Police Department.
After 26 years with the Garden Grove Police Department, Allison recently was promoted to lieutenant after passing an exam and being interviewed by a panel of captains from neighboring police departments.
It’s Allison’s love for Garden Grove that has kept him at his hometown police department for so many years.
“I still respect the patch on my sleeve and badge on my chest,” he said.
Allison was working a part-time job after graduating from high school when he was recruited by Officer Kevin Boddy, who now is a captain with the GGPD. He joined as a cadet in 1991 and became an officer with the department in 1995.
During his first five years as a patrol officer, Allison was named Orange County Auto Theft Officer of the Year. He’s particularly proud of this achievement because at that time officers didn’t have license plate readers to track stolen cars.
After joining the department’s detective bureau in 2000, Allison worked on burglaries, domestic violence and robbery cases. He discovered he enjoyed investigating robberies, whether they involved snatched purses or someone robbing a store. His work on the robbery beat led to several arrests of suspects in the act.
The job of tracking down criminals was even more gratifying for Allison because it meant keeping his own community safe.
“A victim could be my neighbor and I don’t want that,” Allison said.
Another role Allison has taken great pride in is leading GGPD’s Explorer Post. Many of the teenagers who come into the program tell Allison that they’re looking for guidance and discipline in their lives.
“Helping them make that first step in a career has always been a reward,” Allison said.
In his new role as a lieutenant, Allison will continue to oversee the explorer program and take on leading the department’s K9 unit and patrol scheduling. He’ll also be supervising the crime analysis unit, which uses a digital crime database to inform the department’s command staff on how to more efficiently deploy officers for problematic suspects or neighborhoods.
