Greetings,

As the President of the Brownwood Municipal Police Association I believe that it is vitally important to keep you, the Citizens, as informed as possible on the status of your Police Department and of Policing as a whole in the State and Nation. Pursuant to that lofty goal I offer this first quarterly informational posting to cover what a Peace Officer is, what it takes to become one, and why we are facing such a critical crisis in manpower.

As all of you know Policing as a profession is one in which we find ourselves critically low on potential Texas Peace Officers (5 Officers short in Brownwood alone and we have not been fully staffed for approximately 7 years). This trend does not seem to be ending anytime soon. The reasons behind this are multifaceted and intricately intertwined. Just the title alone needs some explanation. Texas Peace Officer. What is it? Is it the Deputy in Brown County? Is it Brownwood Police? Is it the Constables or State Troopers? The answer is all of them. Many people believe that because an Officer works for Brownwood or Early or Bangs or Dallas for that matter that their status as a Peace Officer is dependant upon the City patch that they wear. This is not true. We are licensed as a Texas Peace Officer which means that we can work for any Department anywhere in the State as well as several reciprocal States. The fact that we wear this City patch or that County patch means that that particular Entity is commissioning us to provide our expertise. We are commissioned, in this case by Brownwood, to provide our protections and apply our legal knowledge to keep you and your property safe. So no longer can we look at Brownwood Officers or any other as limited to one particular entity for their job, they are not. It is that they are simply currently compensated for their status as a Texas Peace Officer by that entity. Given this information it is easy to see that with the shortages of Peace Officers in this State it is vitally important to keep the experienced Officers that we do have.

Now that we have identified what a Texas Peace Officer is we need to answer the question of what does it take to become one. As Texas Peace Officers the State requires us to be educated more extensively than almost any other State. In order to graduate the academy they must pass through over 700 hours of instruction/testing as well as countless hours of practicum training. They must then pass the State exam with a score of 80% as a minimum. By the time that an Officer in this State reaches Master Peace Officer, which is mandated instruction by the State, he/she has completed well over the number of hours needed to achieve a collegiate Masters degree. Given these facts it is suddenly clear why a crisis of available manpower is facing Policing across the State. The fact is that we are now forced to look at the fiscal compensation of someone who has a Masters degree. Having done that I am sure you would agree that Police Officers are not compensated at the same level as someone that holds a Collegiate Masters Degree despite the fact that they have even more education than that level. Now I know you are thinking why are Peace Officers required to be so extensively educated and trained? Traditionally they were not and they were chosen by finding the biggest baddest bubba one could find that was able to shoot a pistol. Of course that was then, this is now. Law enforcement has evolved into one of intelligence. Intelligence in action to mitigate the relatively recent invention of vicarious liability. Most folks with a Master’s degree will expect an exceptionally high salary. Less and less folks are willing to commit to the considerable time needed to become certified in this career without the accompanying fiscal compensation. So now we have covered what exactly is your local Police Officer that shows up at your call for service and what it took for that subject to become a Police Officer, as well as what might be causing our current crisis at attracting and retaining Peace Officers.

So what a conundrum we find ourselves in. When we look at the wide number of vacancies locally, across the State, and Nation, the amount of commitment it takes to become an Officer, and the poor compensation for the education, how can we hope to fill our vacancies and more importantly retain our educated and experienced Officers? As I stated at the outset this is a question that is multifaceted and intertwined with no easy answer. It is one that we at the Brownwood Municipal Police Association are committed to answering. We are always open to suggestion. I hope that this first installment was not too terribly boring and that it enlightened in some way. This is not a plea for anything it is simply laying out the facts and reasons behind the crisis. Till next time, we are out here doing our best to protect you and your property. Never hesitate to call us we will always come no matter the danger…. It is what we do.

Humbly,

Sgt. M. Slaymaker
President BMPA
2/9/2008