Chief Peter R. Paulding has been a law enforcement officer for 34 years. He holds a Master of Science Degree in Public Administration.  He began his career in 1972 in Plymouth, Massachusetts and retired as Chief of Police from Grafton, Massachusetts in 2001.  In 2001 he was hired as the Chief of Police in the Gulf Breeze Police Department.

He has been actively participating in the Florida Police Chiefs Association since joining in 2001.  He had the honor to be selected as the FPCA representative to the Florida Governor's Citizen Corps Task Force in 2003. He was also selected to represent District 10 on the Board of Directors in 2004 and presently serves in that capacity as well.

In 2004 he was nominated by the Association to represent Florida’s Police Chiefs on the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation and was subsequently appointed. He was also tasked with spearheading the FPCA Disaster Task Force initiative in 2005 and succeeded in completing the project and received ratification of the plan by the Directors in 2006. The Board of Directors honored him with the 2005 selection of the Directors Choice Award for his efforts in that endeavor.

Regionally he serves as Chair of the Training and Education Advisory Committee, George Stone Criminal Justice Training Center; the Co-Chair of the Security and Communication Sub-Committee, CEO Roundtable, Santa Rosa County; and as Chair of the Florida Region One Anti-Terrorism Task Force, Equipment Committee. He was also received the Distinguished Service award from Chapter VI of the Florida Council on Crime and Delinquency in 2006.

During this same time, he has also led an award winning police agency. The Gulf Breeze Police Department has won the Rocky Pomerance Excellence in Policing award in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005. They have also won the ITT/IACP Community Policing award in 2003 and won the Florida Law Enforcement Challenge award in 2006 for Traffic Safety. In 2006 they were also a finalist in the ITT/IACP Community Policing award and placed in the Top 25 in the IACP Webber Seavey Award for Quality in Law Enforcement competition.

Chief Paulding is married, has three sons and six grandchildren.