Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley promoted Interim Chief Criminal Investigator Tina Perkins to Chief Criminal Investigator, according to an announcement released Thursday. Perkins is the “first woman in the history of the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s office to be named Chief,” Dudley said.
Perkins was promoted to Commander of the Special Investigations Unit and Lompoc Criminal Investigative Team in 2020, and she has worked for more than 15 years in law enforcement. Her career began as a UC Santa Barbara Police Department officer in 2007, where she worked for six years before starting as an investigator with the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office in 2013.
As an investigator, Perkins worked in several different units: the Welfare Fraud Unit, Cannabis Compliance Team, Arson, Environmental Crimes, and Consumer Fraud.
Perkins was born in Santa Barbara and raised in Ojai. Before working in law enforcement, she received an Associate’s Degree in Administration of Justice from Santa Barbara City College, a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Cal State San Marcos, and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Cal State Northridge.
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