'A lot of vacations': Orange City Police Chief Peter Thomas retires after 30 years

ORANGE CITY — Maybe there will be cooking, perhaps at his own restaurant, but for now there will definitely be lots of traveling.

That's what Peter Thomas said his plans are when he officially retires on Friday as chief of police from the Orange City Police Department. Thomas is leaving behind the police badge he carried for 30 years.

At a proclamation ceremony presented to the retiring chief on Tuesday, Thomas said there are no plans for another job in his near future, but said he has definitely made plans for retirement.

"I've got the next year planned, a lot of vacations, a lot of chores around my house and my family's house," the outgoing chief said. "I might venture into some small, moderate cooking, maybe, because I love cooking, maybe. We'll see."

For now, Thomas said that after leading the Orange City Police Department for the last 11 years, he is confident that he served his community and officers well, and is convinced he is leaving the agency in capable hands — that of Deputy Chief Wayne Miller, who will take over as police chief.

Miller will be sworn in on Friday.

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Thomas, 55, also goes down in Orange City history as the police officer who served the longest, a lawman's career started in 1992.

Thomas was 9 when he moved to Florida from Long Island in 1976. He eventually became a brick mason in his father's construction company, and one day in 1992 while working on a home, he met Orange City's then police chief, Arthur Locke, and after a conversation, joined and graduated from the Seminole State College Law Enforcement Academy.

"That conversation was all the push I needed to go to sign up for the academy and that's it. Thirty years later here I am," Thomas said.

Why leave a stellar career that made Thomas "a police chief that any city manager would want to have," as Orange City Manager Dale Arrington said during the presentation at city hall on Tuesday night?

"I just wanted to live life," Thomas said. "I love being a cop, I gave it my all but there are other things to do and there are people to turn it over to. I'm just ready to look back at a great career and enjoy my life."

Career worthy of praise

And it has been a career worthy of praise, Arrington said, as a slide show chronicling Thomas' tenure as a policeman in Orange City whirred on.

"(In 1992) we hired Peter Thomas as a rookie police officer and during those next 20 years, Peter held just about every job that was imaginable at that time in the police department," Arrington said. "He was a patrol officer, he was a traffic homicide investigator, was a field training officer, just to name a few. And he went from officer to sergeant to commander to police chief in 2011."

Arrington said that prior to becoming the city manager for Orange City, she heard some negative things about the city's police department, but that changed when Thomas took over.

"I remember hearing a lot of things about the Orange City Police Department, and then in 2011 it sort of became a little silent," she added.

As internal turmoil roiled the department, in 2010 Thomas attended the Southern Police Institute located at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. The school trains officers to become leaders.

'He held us together as a community"

Shortly after finishing his studies in Kentucky, Thomas took over the department.

"He held us together as a community, he always had his officers' backs and he was a real rock for me to lean on," Arrington said.

Miller, who will take over from Thomas, said the police department is in a "good place" and he will continue to move the agency forward.

"Pete (Thomas) was a terrific chief," Miller said. "The department is running smooth and there is nothing I need to change and I am just going to keep that boat going in the proper direction."

Arrington said she will miss Thomas, who is a person "full of integrity and is honest as the day is long."

"He is very compassionate to the entire citizenry, he wants the best and wanted the best for all of his officers," she said. "He knew they needed to have cutting edge technology, the best equipment, the best cars, even the best refrigerators to keep their lunches."

Thomas' family also welcomed the chief's retirement.

His son, Jacob Thomas, said he is proud of his father, who was the first officer from the Orange City Police Department to attend the prestigious Southern Police Institute.

But he acknowledged that the time was right for his dad to move on.

"Ever since I was born he has been a cop and even at a young age I came to know that cops have a very tough job," Jacob Thomas said. "It's going to be great to have him not so stressed and he will have a good life."

For Rhonda Monti, Thomas' girlfriend of 10 years, she said Thomas can now feel free.

"Freedom to live his life and not be under scrutiny at all times," Monti said. "I'm looking forward to traveling and just making memories together, having him happy and healthy."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Orange City Florida Police Chief Peter Thomas retires after three decades