Iraq War Vet Leads San Angelo Police Patrols, Investigations

‘When I was 16, my sister was in med school and my mom and I were going to pick her up…[when] a car in front of us hit a pedestrian,” says Matt Vaughn, recalling the event that would in some fashion shape who he was to become. “I had just gone through CPR training in high school, and so I hopped out of the car, I assessed the guy—he wasn’t breathing, he had no pulse—and I started doing CPR, ended up reviving the guy.”

As Vaughn continued chest compressions, medics arrived and the man came to, those around him frozen with fear as the victim was loaded into an ambulance and transported to the hospital.

“I realized quickly—there was a crowd of people there when it happened—and I realized that some people freeze in situations like that,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just how their bodies react, and mine didn’t react that way. So I thought, ‘well, maybe that’s something I need to use in my future’. So I have chosen lines of work that are inherently dangerous. They require response under pressure, and so that’s why I chose these kinds of career fields for service.”

Matthew Vaughn was born in Irving and moved around quite a bit, ultimately graduating high school in The Woodlands and starting soon after at Texas A&M. After his first semester, Vaughn lost his academic scholarship, admitting now that he didn’t have the self-discipline to commit to his coursework and enlisted in the US military in August 2001.

“I was in basic training when Sept. 11 happened,” he said. “It was actually kind of interesting. Basic training is obviously very regimented and you are very sheltered from external stimuli: you don’t get newspapers, you don’t get to see a television.”

As a squad leader, Vaughn had an appointment in a drill sergeant’s office the morning of 9/11, where he saw the fiery images of the plane crash on a television.

“It was overwhelming,” he said. “I was one of 30-40 people in my platoon and none of them saw it, or knew anything about it.”

Vaughn said he was certain at that point he’d be pulled from basic training and shipped off to war, but that, of course, didn’t happen. Instead, he completed basic and went into military intelligence, serving from 2001 to 2007, including two tours in Iraq from ’03-’04 and ’05-’06.

The second tour extended his four-year contract to six years, and just before he left the military he married another soldier stationed in San Angelo and moved to the city with his new wife.

Roughly a half year after relocating to San Angelo and exiting the military, Matthew Vaughn applied for and joined the San Angelo Police Department as a patrol officer.

“Somewhere along the lines I became aware that everyone is going to die eventually,” he said of his reason for joining. “I want my life to have meant something. I like the concept of helping people that can’t help themselves.”

For the next three and a half years, Vaughn worked the streets on patrol until there was an opening in the Criminal Investigations Division and he was chosen as the top candidate. The transition meant a change in tactics, and the former training officer was excited to take over investigations where patrol left off.

“It was more cerebral, and I like that,” Vaughn explained of detective work. “I think one of the things that appealed to me the most was that there is something about getting a confession that is very exhilarating to me, and rewarding. You’re trying to get someone to tell you the one thing that they absolutely, positively do not want to say, so it’s a different kind of challenge. It’s not a physical struggle, it’s a mental one, a cerebral one.”

From 2011 to September 2014, Vaughn was a detective, working a variety of cases ranging from homicide to white collar crime, including an inside theft job by a city employee who had been pocketing cash from checks turned over to her office.

The three years he spent conducting investigations would prepare him well for a future supervisory role, he said, notably taking on his first homicide investigation just six months after transferring into CID.

“You have a lot more resources at your command,” Vaughn recalled his first homicide investigation. “Whereas you would normally do it all yourself, you’ve got three supervisors, five detectives, six patrol officers; ‘I need you to do this. I need you to do that’. It was probably good experience to help prepare me for a supervisory role because there was a lot of delegation and supervision. It was very educational.”

A former sergeant in the army, Vaughn enjoyed middle management and knew he wanted to some day progress to a similar rank on the police force. When a position opened up near the end of 2014, he signed up for the test and once again, came out on top.

“I like being close to the line officers,” he said. “I don’t want to promote up the ranks so high that I’m distant from them, but I like to be in a position to assist them. As a supervisor, what appeals to me is protecting officers. Making sure they do the right thing, that they’re acting professionally, that they’re not opening themselves up to some liability, that they’re being polite and professional, courteous when it’s possible…I can give them the confidence to know that I will have their back, I will support them…I find that very rewarding.”

In September 2014, Vaughn took over as acting sergeant and, in the space of four months, made such an impact on patrol that he was named the 2014 Patrol Supervisor of the Year.

In June, the department’s command staff declared him the officer of the month, his lieutenant stating, “[Vaughn] represents a new generation of supervisors in the department. He has strong leadership skills and would show the department’s commitment to progressive policing.”

For his part, Vaughn said he was shocked and could have named countless others more deserving. Receiving the award was an honor, he said.

Although he was acting and awarded as a supervisor in 2014, Vaughn wasn’t officially sworn in as a sergeant until March 2015. Now, he works as an Intelligence Liaison Sergeant on the morning shift four days a week, while other Intelligence Liaison Sergeants fill out the remaining shifts and days of the week.

“I have the dubious honor, I guess, of kind of coordinating all of the intelligence from all of the sectors,” he explained. “I attend our intelligence meetings every couple of weeks and try and take everything and boil it down to something that an individual officer can use on a shift.”

Vaughn explained that he analyzes crime statistics, intelligence gathered on the street and specialized divisions and combines that information into a condensed report that enables officers to move between sectors and still work efficiently without having to read through pages and pages of reports to know what’s going on in a specific area.

“It’s basically a quick-reference guide of intel,” he said. “It’s not as in depth as what the individual sector sergeants are. It’s kind of picking and choosing from that.”

In addition to the intelligence role, Vaughn responds to calls requiring a supervisor on scene and provides counsel to officers on patrol who may have questions about how to handle different situations.

When he first took over the role, he said his ultimate goal was to transfer back to CID as a supervisor in that division. A few months in, however, Vaughn says he’s really enjoying being back on the streets and doesn’t feel a burning desire to get back to CID any time soon.

“This job is particularly difficult with the current social climate,” Vaughn said. “However, we have a wonderful and encouraging community in San Angelo and I am very grateful for the support of our residents.  I would not want to police anywhere else.