• LESLIE WILBER - Victoria Advocate
• Originally published May 26, 2008 at 11:08 p.m., updated May 26, 2008 at 11:08 p.m.

A good cop isn’t always easy to recruit. The standards for a job at the Victoria Police Department are more stringent than those listed in your average classified ad. And, like agencies across the country, the department here is competing against the military and Homeland Security jobs for candidates.

“We were having very little success with recruitment of officers from other departments,” said Lt. Ralph Buentello, who is in charge of training for the department. “The chief decided, ‘Why not hire within our own community?’”

There are people who live around Victoria who are interested in police work, but haven’t attended a police academy or passed the state law-enforcement test.

Last year, the Victoria Police Department hired five such men and ultimately paid a tuition and salary for four to complete the Victoria College Police Academy. It’s a strategy they haven’t used in several years, Buentello said.

Billy Bernard, Jimmy McDonald , Rafael DeLaGarza IV and Dennis Paine Jr. graduated from the academy last week. On Friday, they’ll be sworn in as police officers.

Paine talked about becoming a cop almost as soon as he could talk at all. But, the 23-year-old got a GED instead of a high school diploma. He worked in the oil field to support his family of four.

His dream seemed impossible: he couldn’t quit his job, pay his bills and tuition for the police academy.

“This is the only way I could have done it,” Paine said.

As a kid, DeLaGarza was surrounded by public service like toys in a sandbox. His father, Rafael DeLaGarza III, worked as a Victoria firefighter for 30 years. His mother, Linda Strnadel, dispatched for the city.

But at 25, he too had a wife, a son and no way to afford school without a job.

DeLaGarza’s father told him sometimes larger departments hired cadets and put them through the academy. He didn’t think Victoria did the same thing, though. About eight months later, the older DeLaGarza heard Victoria would pay for a handful of cadets to attend the academy.

“I’m going, ‘This can’t be true; it’s like my prayers were answered,’” the cadet’s father said of his dream to find a way for his son to attend the academy.

Besides offering budding police opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise, it gives the department a way to find high-quality recruits, Buentello said.

“This has been a huge success,” Buentello said. The program worked so well, the department will pay for at least three more cadets to attend the academy in August, he said.

The department can have as many as 107 officers, but it is five short of that number, he said.

Putting a cadet through the academy fosters loyalty, said James Martinez, the director for the police academy at Victoria College.

He should know. In 1994, the Victoria Police Department paid for Martinez to attend the school he now directs. He stayed with the department for 11 years.

“It goes back to ownership,” Martinez said. If officers are committed to their department, they’ll invest more in their community. Those are the police who coach little league and volunteer.

This loyalty doesn’t come without risk, though. It cost Victoria $1,700 to send each cadet through the academy, Buentello said. Plus, they were were paid a cadet’s salary, which amounts to $28,674 annually.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a roll of the dice, because our background check is so intense,” Buentello said. Besides interviews, exams and background checks, interviewers visit candidates at home. Officers also call friends, family and neighbors for references.

“They’re a huge investment for the department,” Buentello said. “We have to invest wisely.”

Although Bernard, DeLaGarza, McDonald and Paine graduated from the academy, their training has just begun. For 16 weeks — the same duration as the academy — they’ll work with training officers as they patrol Victoria, Buentello said.

“I’m ready to show them the investment is worth it,” Paine said.

Leslie Wilber is a reporter for the Victoria Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6521 or e-mail her at lwilber@vicad.com.

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