Lieutenant Lawhead started his career with the City of San Bernardino in 1992, after spending 5 years with another agency in southern California. Lt. Lawhead was born and raised in northern California, and prior to becoming a police officer, Lt. Lawhead served 6 years in the United States Marine Corps. Since his appointment as police officer in 1992, Lt. Lawhead has worked a variety of assignments to include problem oriented police officer assigned to the downtown area, bicycle mounted enforcement officer, traffic investigator/motor officer, cargo theft investigator, and a field training officer.  Lt. Lawhead was promoted to detective in 2004, and assigned to traffic as the lead traffic investigator. In 2006 he was promoted to sergeant and reassigned to the patrol division as a field supervisor, and In 2009 Lt. Lawhead was reassigned to traffic as the traffic supervisor.

Lt. Lawhead has been an active member of the community not only as a police officer, but as a board member of "Young Visionaries", a gang intervention group that targets at risk youths in our community. Lt. Lawhead is also the chairman of the board for the "Public Safety Academy", a school geared towards educating kids interested in pursuing a career in public safety.