Years of Service: 1977-2011

After serving in the Army, Carlos began his law enforcement career as a patrol officer with the National City Police Department in Southern California. When he was hired, National City was known as a violent city that kept officers busy daily with shootings and gang violence. Carlos worked on patrol before later becoming a canine handler and then working plain clothes in the crime suppression unit. As Carlos's career progressed, he watched other officers get hurt and have to medically retire and figured out that he needed to have a backup plan. He decided that that plan was to go to law school and get his law degree and did this while still working as a police officer. Carlos later became an attorney and worked as a Deputy Attorney General for the California State Attorney General's office prosecuting similar crimes to those he worked on as a patrol officer.