Captain Perez was hired as a Police Officer for the City of South Gate in 1995. As an officer he served as:

• Crime Impact Team Officer
• Detective
• Field Training Officer
• Traffic Investigator

In 2004 he was promoted to Sergeant and supervised:

• Crime Impact Team
• Patrol
• Traffic

In 2011 he was promoted to Lieutenant. He had the responsibilities of:

• General Investigations
• Narcotics Investigations
• Record Bureau