Peter Shulman Found His Place with Culver City Police

Today marks the end of the career of one of Culver City Police Department's long-tenured officers.

Having served his official last day on Friday, Parking Enforcement Officer Peter Shulman capped off his 25-year career with the Culver City Police Department's Traffic Bureau with an End of Watch call today. This marks the ceremonial end of a career that officially ended this past Friday.

The path to get here was anything but straightforward for the 59-year-old Shulman, but his Southern California roots eventually brought him close to home in Culver City.

The Long, Winding Road

Peter Shulman was born and raised just off Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Hills. His father made hats and later opened an orthotics business on Washington Boulevard and Inglewood Boulevard near Tito's Tacos, but this humble career hides a more inspiring secret.

"He was in D-Day, and he was in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, " Shulman told Culver Crescent. "I didn't grow up hearing police stories, but I did hear military stories."

Military roots run deep in the family, with Shulman's brother serving as a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army and his uncle also fighting in World War II.

And yet, for a long time, he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do, remaining adrift in both mind and body. Shulman moved to San Diego after two years at City College in Santa Monica and spent two years there before moving to Santa Barbara, where he lived for another two years.

"I was just doing a series of odd jobs," Shulman recalled. "I worked at the airport; I worked for telemarketing jobs or cellular companies."

He moved back to Los Angeles in 1989, but only after taking a trip that he credits with helping shape his perspective. Shulman went on a long international adventure, starting with a plane ticket to Athens, Greece, and ending with him having visited 11 different countries from April to September 1989.

There was no plan when Shulman first embarked on this journey, but he knew one thing: traveling the world was something he had always wanted to do.

"I had always been interested in the world," Shulman said, "so I always wanted to travel."

Shulman was 24 years old when he returned to American shores, drawn back to Los Angeles by his father, who was around 70 years old when the younger Shulman returned.

However, it was close to 10 years after his return to the States before Shulman eventually found his place in the city. He continued his search for purpose, jumping from job to job before eventually finding something he would stick to for multiple years: being a court reporter.

Continuing to travel — this time domestically — was one of the perks of Shulman's job as a court reporter. Had the job been full-time, he said he might not have come to Culver City at all.

But the world had other plans for Peter Shulman.

Finding a Role

After three years and a half years of traveling the country as a court reporter, Shulman found himself at the Culver City Fire Department in May 1999, seeking a job in a local community. He had moved to Playa Del Rey five years prior, where he continues to live today.

"I wanted something conveniently located in a city that I was familiar with," Shulman said, "and I wanted a government job."

His first job with the CCFD paid him just $10 an hour to serve as a Community Service Officer. While the title sounds straightforward enough, there were better ways to describe Shulman's day-to-day tasks.

"Interestingly, 80% of the job was taking care of the parking meters of Culver City," Shulman said.

That was Shulman's role with the Fire Department from May 1999 until June 2000. When the Culver City Police Department, under then-Police Chief Ted Cook, absorbed the responsibility of managing parking meters, Shulman moved to the CCPD in December 2000, where he remained until his final day last Friday.

Earlier in his tenure, Shulman saw himself working with parking only for a while. Yet, the little things about the job and the situation led Shulman to stay in his role, where he witnessed Culver City evolve over a quarter century.

"I liked it because it was an outdoor job," Shulman said. "I liked seeing the different businesses spring up...it wasn't the sleepy town it had been when I first joined."

"An Outdoor Job"

When he first joined the CCPD, Shulman was put in Support Services, which no longer exists within the Department. He received a $1 raise but was placed in a desk job centered around ordering supplies for the CCPD.

Shulman felt more comfortable at a job in the field, so he returned to his work with parking enforcement as an officer with the Traffic Bureau after two years in Support Services.

"I think I am more suitable for an outdoor job than being indoors behind the desk," Shulman said.

He eventually wrote thousands of parking tickets for the Culver City Police Department and says he holds the record for the most citations issued in a single day, with 170. According to Shulman, the average is 30 tickets a day, with those numbers going up at certain times of the year.

Shulman explained that people are much more brazen with parking violations in December, making it the busiest time of the year for him.

"If it's December 5, they automatically think it is Christmas, and the laws don't apply," Shulman said.

Shulman recalls his 170 ticket day being the week of the Christmas holiday, and he remembers particularly how busy he was in the earlier half of that day. Shulman worked 10-hour shifts from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and remembers having issued 90 citations by 11 a.m. that fateful morning.

Despite the gaudy number of citations he has given throughout the years, Shulman says he has kept a good relationship with the community. He has never had to call for backup in his career with the CCPD, which he attributes to his open-mindedness.

"I have the ability to connect with all different walks of life," Shulman said. "I think it is because I am well-traveled."

Shulman has expanded the number of countries he has visited since that first trip 35 years ago. He says he has now visited 35 countries — Turkey and Italy were the most recent visits in 2022 — and hopes to continue those travels in retirement.

"My short-term goal is to visit the 19 States [in the US] that I haven't visited," Shulman says.

He also started a stained glass business on the side, and he hopes to expand on this endeavor in his later years. While he felt he could do the job of a Parking Enforcement Officer at 59, he was ready to pursue his passions.

"I still want to be involved with the city," Shulman said of retiring. "but in this capacity, I think it has run its course."

EDITOR'S NOTE: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Shulman was paid $7 an hour when starting at CCFD. This error has been corrected.