The Levelland Police Department (LPD) announced that their field training program (FTO) and first year of probation programs were certified by Vererans Affairs (VA).
This means veterans can become members of the LPD while retaining education benefits to help them make ends meet through the beginning of their time working with the department.
“This gives us a little bit more to offer, and it’s a benefit they earned,” Police Chief O’Bryon said. “In the long run, it just legitimizes our program and allows other people to look at us. We feel this is a good opportunity and we think that we can train properly to get more people, especially veterans, out in the workforce.”
O’Bryon decided to certify the programs after previously working in and contributing to their implementation in other police departments.
“Rockwall PD is where I first was introduced to the program,” O’Bryon said. “Then when I went to Elm Ridge where we didn’t have the program. I started doing research on how we could get our training program up and running as an on the job training through the education benefits and was successful in implementing a program there. And so when I came here, that was on the forefront of wanting to get that established here as well.”
According to O’Bryon, to get the programs certified, the LPD sent requests to the VA, who sent it to the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC). The TWC then reviewed their application and conducted a site visit to make sure the department has the tools and policies to properly train officers.
“It requires quite a bit of forms and documentation to get it all up and running, but in the long run, for the veterans themselves, it’s a huge benefit,” O’Bryon said. “The police department itself does not receive anything monetarily, or benefit from it. However, our veterans do.” O’Bryon also said that it was worth it because if the department takes care of the veterans that work for them, then the veterans will stay and help the community.
The education benefits help with housing and living costs for new officers coming out of the military for about the first year and 16 weeks of working in the department. It does not cost the city or police department anything.
“For any young officer, the wage isn’t always necessarily the highest, and so that gives them a little time to reach that higher wage and still be able to take care of things,” O’Bryon said. “The hope is that we can attract people that want to move to Levelland with it.”
The LPD currently has two officers in the programs. Officer Enrique Salinas and Officer Pete Lazcano are both recent graduates of the South Plains College Police Academy who previously served in the Marines. Salinas served for five years and Lazcano for four years.
“For me, I’m using it just to help pay off my truck right now because once I do that, my next goal is trying to get a house, so just having the extra income is great,” Lazcano said.
According to the officers, there is an appeal to police work after the military because it is a similar environment to what they are used to. This includes the chain of command, schedule, and “going every day into the unknown” as Lazcano said.
“They checked up on us, made sure we were in communication constantly through the academy, and we started working, and it’s been the same,” Salinas said. “The work environment’s great, the relationships are there. Everyone has a good relationship with each other, and it just makes the job fun.”