In 1982, after attending Chabot College,
Richard Paloma became a reserve deputy sheriff for Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.
Later, he joined the Newark Police Department (California) as a full-time police officer. After fourteen years with the Newark Police Department, he decided to move to a department closer to his
home in the Central California Valley. He joined the Stockton Unified School
District Police Department as a sergeant. Richard Paloma has worked as field
training officer, detective and field sergeant.
Richard Paloma’s writing in his novel,
Beach Club, has reminded reviewers of Joseph Wambaugh’s early work. According
to one reader, “Paloma's novel is an intriguing police ride-a-long through the fictional East Bay city of Eden Valley,
California newly plagued by a serial rapist. More than a look at department politics and procedures, readers are invited into
the investigations, antics and lives of the swing shift officers, affectionately dubbed the “Beach Club”
