San Angelo Police Honor Sgt. Rusty Herndon's 30 Years of Service

Officers and staff from the San Angelo Police Department and family gathered together Wednesday morning at the McNease Convention Center to honor and say farewell to Sgt. Rusty Herndon during his retirement ceremony. The people who gathered together in his honor viewed Sgt. Herndon as a vessel containing a wealth of knowledge. Herndon, during his almost 30 years of service, worked various areas of the police, and his roles ranged from working patrol, to training director and instructor, to detective and supervisor of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Chief Tim Vasquez, who led the retirement ceremony, said, “Well I know that this day is kind of difficult for Rusty, bittersweet I guess you can say. There is some positive and negative, obviously. For us as an organization, we hate to see him leave. He takes so much knowledge with him, and I don’t think he’s been able to share everything he knows with as many officers as we would have liked; but, this is the beginning of something new for Rusty. I think we are going to see a lot more of those cruise pictures. We are very honored to have been able to work with him."

Vasquez added that he's been with the department for almost 26 years, so he has spent his entire career working with the sergeant.

"I think his love and passion has been CID," Vasquez continued. "He’s done a phenomenal job for us there. As an administrator, I hate to see someone with that amount of experience leave. He has influenced so many on our organization.”

In addition to the chief's heartfelt words, many coworkers and family members at the event got teary eyed. They couldn’t have been more proud of him and his accomplishments during his time at the SAPD. Herndon's colleagues said there were many things they were going to miss, but most of all they were going to miss him and all that he brought with him.

Chris Heronima, a coworker and colleague on the SAPD pistol team, said, “He is a good, dear friend and a good colleague. By having him as a supervisor, I knew I could always count on him to be there when I needed him. I knew that was the kind of supervisor I wanted to be. He taught me to take a little bit from everybody and mold yourself into who you are based upon those experiences. I can’t look at him while talking about that because he is a dear friend and we’ve done a lot of things together. We’ve traveled together and shot together. He is an awesome human being, awesome father, [and an] awesome husband. I’ve seen how he takes care of his family. He has also instilled the values, not only on how to be a police officer, but [also on how to] be a better man.” 

David Howard, Sgt. Herndon’s Supervisor, stated he was sad yet happy to see him go and set out on a new set of adventures.

He said, “I have worked with Sgt. Herndon for about 28 years now. As a sergeant in the Criminal Investigative Division, I could depend on him to teach and pass on his knowledge to the new guys coming upstairs to work as detectives. He was a good leader, and most important, he loved teaching [and] sharing his knowledge with the guys. They respected him and liked him a lot, so we hate to see him go but are very happy for him. He had a great sense of humor, and I learned from him also. He had a broad range of experience to draw from, and personally, he’s a great guy, a good man.”

Bobby Elrod worked with Sgt. Herndon in CID crimes against children and the pistol team.

He stated, “He let us have fun. He supported us and took care of us. He never asked us to do anything that he wouldn’t do himself, and he participated just as much as we did. He was fun to be with. Do your job and have a good time; we always had a good time no matter what the situation was.”

Another officer under Sgt. Herndon, Kelly Lajoie, said Herndon was her direct supervisor for approximately three years.

"I work crimes against children--those monotonous cases you work over and over, and they are really hard cases to work," Lajoie said. "He knew how to cut it up just right to keep you relaxed and jovial. We worked really hard crimes together, all child related, and he was right there with you throughout all of it. A great supporter."

Sgt. Herndon’s son, Lance Herndon, also spoke highly of his father. He explained that his father was the reason he stepped into the uniform as well.

“Ever since I was a little boy, I remember seeing him dressed in his uniform every single day," Lance recalled. "He would come home late at night; it would be 1 o’clock in the morning and I would wake up and run to go see him. I wanted to hear about his night or day. Even now that he’s retiring, he’s not going to have any more stories, but I still look forward to hearing them--what he’s done and accomplished. That was my biggest influence. Since I could remember, I wanted nothing else but law enforcement. It’s because of him; he’s been my hero. There is no one I look up to more than him. I’m blessed and honored that I get to carry on the law enforcement in the family, and [I'm] looking forward to 30 years in my own career.”

Alyise Herndon, Sgt. Herndon' daughter, expressed how she admired her father.

“I am so proud of him," she explained. "Growing up, I didn’t really think much about my Dad being an officer. It was just normal for us. But as I got older, and seeing how big of an influence he has been on people and the department, I am so proud to be his daughter. I’m looking forward to more trips to visit him and to have more family time with him.” 

Sgt. Herndon also spoke during the retirement ceremony and made sure to express how thankful he was for all those people who helped and guided him through his life. He was sure to end his speech with a series of quotes for which he was known for with is coworkers.

“For those of you who know, I get a series of quotes every day and I try to pick out something positive, something touching," Sgt. Herndon stated. "Through my career, I have come to try to keep our career in a positive light since we deal [with] so many negative things. And know that we do make a difference in the peoples' lives we touch, whether good or bad. When I first got started in this career, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. Howard Miller recruited me into the organization, and I thought I was driving faster than the rest of the people. I didn’t realize how big it was, and I went through a time and discovered things that sometimes law enforcement takes a black eye. And not with just what happened here, but with the Rodney King incident. Something that happened 1500 miles away was certainly a trial and tribulation for me personally because I got challenged on that in a local bar. I began to realize through my career that what I do has a ripple effect across the nation. So what I choose to do, either bad or good, was going to influence or bring bad light on our department. I chose to do good; I wanted to represent our department through good light.”

To help inspire a positive environment and represent the department through good light, here are some the quotes Herndon used:

• By Edward Everett Hale: I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. What I can do, I should do. And what I should do, by the grace of God I will do. 
• By Benjamin Franklin: Make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you. 
• By Edmund Burke: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. 

Sgt. Herndon said he is very much looking forward to retirement, mostly in the sense of “Not getting called out; getting to sleep in; and not having to go to meetings.” He added that his grand plans after retirement kicks in are to work around the house mostly, but he has other plans as well.

"I live out in the country, so [I plan to] just relax around the ranch, spend more time with my wife [and] travel to see the children since they live out of town,” the sergeant said.

Overall, however, after Wednesday's event, it was obvious Herndon is going to miss his role as a police officer. 

“I’m going to miss a lot of things, more the people that I worked with," he explained. "I had a really good team and I was involved in so many different things within the department. I got the privilege of working with good teams. There are a lot of things I’m going to miss about the job. I'll miss being able to go after the bad guys, like those who go out and hurt people. Those are the ones I go after; I’m going to miss that.”