Former Deputy Sheriff Wins Book Festival

June 6, 2010 - Harry D. Penny, Jr., a former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy, was awarded first prize in the autobiography in the 2010 Beach Book Festival for his book Behind the Badge: The Funny Side of the Thin Blue Line.

About the Festival:
The 2010 Beach Book Festival is an annual program spotlighting the hottest reads of the upcoming summer season. The Beach Book Festival considers self-published or independent publisher non-fiction, fiction, biography/autobiography, children's books, teenage, how-to, science fiction, romance, comics, poetry, spiritual, compilations/anthologies, history, business and health-oriented books published on or after Jan. 1, 2001

About the Author
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. A Vietnam and Gulf War veteran, he retired from the Navy as a Chief Petty Officer (Chief Hospital Corpsman, Aircrew/Fleet Marine Force).



Harry Penny has authored several works including the book, Behind the Badge: The Funny Side of the Thin Blue Line and the award winning (National Library of Poetry) poem I'm the One Called which has been published in numerous military publications, over a thirty-year period and continues to this day. He has also published various articles for small magazines and military publications.

About the Book
According to the book description of Behind the Badge: The Funny Side of the Thin Blue Line, “These stories are not the ordinary stories you find in the media or in books. The streets of Los Angeles County provide experiences found in big cities on a daily basis. Facing a possible life-and-death situation at any time, the officers often find occasions when the unthinkable happens. Whether rolling “Code 3” to answer a robbery-in-progress call and later get your patrol car stolen by the suspect, or teaching a “rookie” how to safely load/unload a shotgun only to have him blow off the top of your patrol car are stories that can only be told by those who experienced them. How about jokingly making an impromptu funny script change while making a documentary film about a homicide investigation only to have it end up in the film? These are all true stories written by the officers who experienced them. Cops have a sense of humor too-a very dry sense of humor. Ride along with them as they show you the Funny Side of the “Thin Blue Line.”