• BY LESLIE WILBER - LWILBER@VICAD.COM
• Originally published November 7, 2009 at 10:30 p.m., updated November 9, 2009 at 10:40 a.m.

• TIDBITS ABOUT SHANE WALLACE:

  Wallace participated in high school track and field. Although he doesn't compete regularly anymore, he won the senior division in the long jump and high jump in the 2009 Texas Police Olympics.

  His sons' classmates ...

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TIDBITS ABOUT SHANE WALLACE:

Wallace participated in high school track and field. Although he doesn't compete regularly anymore, he won the senior division in the long jump and high jump in the 2009 Texas Police Olympics.

His sons' classmates are always impressed when an officer visits their classroom. But the boys would rather be firefighters or work at Adopt-A-Pet when they grow up, they say.

"I do not want them to be police officers," Wallace said of his sons. He would worry too much, he said.

Wallace started his law enforcement career as a sheriff's deputy in his hometown of Giddings.

His dream is to one day become the chief of a small-town police department.

Every Sunday he makes bacon and pancakes for breakfast. He's a fan of the George Foreman griddle.

Shane Wallace is a bit puzzled by this interview. Not to say he isn't cooperative or flattered.

He just wonders who thought he was so fascinating. And why.

Because he's pretty typical, he says. Just a nice guy who, enchanted by "The Andy Griffith Show" at a young age, decided to become a police officer. A doting father, the kind who tears the Airhead into little bites when his 4-year-old son selects the candy as a reward for a good day in school.

"I don't want you to choke, baby," he tells Noah.

People seem to find the depths of Wallace's kindness most fascinating. Since becoming a Victoria police officer in 2001, the 31-year-old has become known for bringing food to the hungry, raising money for fellow officers when they're ill, and spearheading charitable efforts.

He does this all while working as a traffic investigator, a job that offers him more regular shifts than patrol. But the job also requires him to often arrive first at wrecks.

He still cries when he dwells on a memory from more than a year ago. He tried to help a toddler who was crushed by a sport utility vehicle on a car wash parking lot.

Wallace was the first officer on the scene. He could do nothing for the baby, but the boy's mother begged for him to help.

"It was the first time that I cried at a scene," he said. "If it didn't bother you, something would be wrong."

Witnessing violent, disturbing wrecks is part of Wallace's job. He felt pangs recently when he listened to the ringing cell phone owned by a man who had just died in a crash. Someone was looking for the man.

But the toddler was different. For a month, Wallace did not sleep. He dreamed of the boy. The toddler reminded him of his own sons.

As kids can do, Noah and Blake shaped their father's career during the past five years. He started to worry a lot more. Became a lot more cautious. So when he wanted to join the SWAT team, he decided to train for hostage negotiation.

Hostage negotiation. Wallace concedes that's pretty interesting.

"The key is being a good listener," Wallace says. "They want someone to listen to them."

If Wallace is known for only one thing, it's for being a nice guy. When he sees people who need food, he brings them sandwiches. He tried to entice local business owners to support a police department fundraiser. He works now to restart the department's Blue Santa program, a present giveaway for poor kids.

That compassion makes Wallace an outstanding officer, Police Chief Bruce Ure says.

"I know he's got a big heart," said Dewayne Hutchins, 57, a friend of Wallace and his family.

Wallace and Hutchins met more than a year ago. Wallace's father died recently, and Hutchins, who had no children, viewed the younger officer as a son.

"It's been a family," said Hutchins, who along with his wife spent holidays with Wallace and his children.

Like everyone who talks about Wallace, Hutchins tells stories about how the officer helps people: fellow police, the homeless, anyone in need.

Even so, Wallace remains certain that, during his time on the job, he's made people angry.

He remembers receiving a traffic ticket as a teenager in Giddings. He was so angry at the officer, he decided he'd forget "The Andy Griffith Show" dream and pursue his other interest: coaching.

Then he calmed and thought about it. The officer who ticketed him only did his job, he reasoned.

Wallace looks at it this way: He tries to avoid writing frivolous tickets. But if someone is doing something that could cause an injury, he has to prevent it.

That's his job.

The conversation lulls again. Wallace again insists there's not much more to him that's interesting. Except he likes to buy antiques.

Really?

Sure. He'll allow that's unusual, too. His grandparents owned an antique store in Kansas. When he visited them after his parents' divorce, he always liked the shop.

Wallace isn't interested in selling antiques or tracking their prices. But he likes the look of the 100-year-old cabinet that holds family pictures and the newly-acquired painting which advertises Pabst Blue Ribbon.

And this is how the conversation goes. Wallace says he can't think of much more that's interesting about him, then he parses another plum tidbit: He can still make it more than 16 feet in the long jump; he's worked more than 40 traffic wrecks in a single week; he preps his sons for camping by pitching tents in their living room.

After all, he's pretty fascinating for a regular guy.

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