At NBPD, new hire and 2 promotions

The Newport Beach Police Department welcomed a new officer and promoted two detectives to sergeant during a ceremony Thursday.

Dustin Houston, a Rancho Cucamonga resident and former emergency medical technician, is the newcomer to the NBPD.

“He’s a lateral from one of our farm teams, LAPD,” Chief Jay Johnson joked.

The LAPD hired Houston in 2011, and he worked in a specialized burglary and robbery unit and in other assignments after completing the academy.

At Newport, he’ll be on patrol with a field training officer, Johnson said.

After Houston took his oath of office and received his badge, Johnson invited the two detectives to join him.

Darrin Joe joined the NBPD in 2001 as a recruit and moved up to patrol officer, field training officer and detective.

Now as a sergeant, he’ll work as a supervisor in the patrol division.

“Actually he’ll probably end up being your boss, Dustin,” Johnson said, pointing to the NBPD’s newest member.

Joe knelt on the ground after taking his oath so his two kids could help his wife pin a new badge on his chest.

“No one else holds themselves to a higher standard than I hold myself, and for that reason I will not let the city down. I will not let you down. I will not let the department down,” Joe told the chief and a crowd of about 100 officers, family members and friends in the Police Department’s auditorium.

Lastly, Det. Ryan Peters joined Johnson on stage to receive his sergeant’s badge.

Peters started his law enforcement career at the Long Beach Police Department in 2001 before transferring in 2004 to Newport, where he worked in the patrol division and on the SWAT team.

As a sergeant, he’ll be a patrol division field supervisor and work as an operational sergeant on the SWAT team, Johnson said.

Like Joe, Peters thanked his family, especially his wife of six years, for their support during a lengthy testing process to achieve the new rank.

“Over the last year and a half, because of the cases I’ve been working and this process, I’ve been gone nights, weekends, and it has been a long year and a half, and you have either been pregnant or had our newborn,” Peters said to his wife, Ashlee.

“In that time, every time I came home, no matter what time in the morning it was or what time at night it was, you were a rock.”