Waco Police – Waco, Texas (1970s)

In the 1970s I came back from Vietnam to my hometown of Waco, Texas where I previously worked as a Police Cadet for a whopping $340.00 a month while attending McLennan Community College until I was drafted into the U.S. Army.

On my return to Waco, I applied for a job as a police patrol officer at the Waco Police Department which had moved from the basement of the City Hall - where I had worked as a Police Cadet - to a brand new Police building at the corner of 4th and Waco Drive.

The Police Department was looking to start hiring as many police officers as they needed to allow the department to grow with the expanding city of Waco.

Once my three months 600-hour police academy conducted at the Waco police department was completed me and the other police recruits got our certificates and started our three-month ride along to see if we could apply what we learned in the police academy to real world police operations.

At the end of my three month ride along practicing what I learned in the police academy me and the rest of the police recruit class were still working and learning even more from our senior police partners but we could not stay in ride along mode forever and on the fourth month my police recruit class became fully fledged police officers and began our life as Waco Police Officers making $529.00 a month.

My time with the Waco Police was short since I was in the Texas National Guard on a break from the regular Army and after only year of excitement as a Waco Police officer I was back in the U.S. Army as a Military Policemen where I would spend the rest of my life working for the Army and the Department of Defense.

When I left the Waco Police department I was making $595.00 a month so I was happy to get back to the regular Army where I made more money and had a better chance for promotions – Crazy.

As my Waco Police memories come to me I will jot them down and see if they make sense and if I can even write about them, it was a scary time every now and then back then, and once my memories can be posted I will do so.