San Angelo Police Swear in Four New Officers

Yesterday, City Manager Daniel Valenzuela and Chief of Police Tim Vasquez welcomed four new police officers. This was the last time they were seen as cadets as the four were sworn-in by the police chief in the City Municipal Courtroom. They came dressed in the traditional SAPD dark blue uniforms, sans their badge at the beginning of the ceremony. After they were sworn in, their uniforms with newly pinned-on police badges made each of them recognizable as police officers. They were given the rank of “A.P.O.”, or Apprentice Police Officers, a rank they will wear on their collar until the first promotion.

San Angelo’s newest policemen are: Stephen Guevara, Nathanial Long, Jose Villalobos, and Joshua Younts. 

These four successfully completed an extensive 824-hour academy course, learning basic law enforcement skills and a multi-week, in-service course. 

Police Chief Tim Vasquez welcomed them by recounting the history of community policing. He said that the roots of city police departments in this country can be traced back to pre-colonial “night watch” organizations in Boston, that worked “part time, without pay.” He paused, then quipped, “Kinda like how we operate today” to a room full of laughs.

Vasquez said that the San Angelo Police Department Is recognized across the state as a visionary police force that utilizes three prongs of approach to law enforcement: Community-oriented policing, problem-oriented policing, and intelligence policing. It is data-driven, Vasquez said, where the department collects and analyzes data on crime trends in the city and focuses manpower and other resources on areas that the data study recommends. “If we ever become satisfied with the way that we are policing, we will open up the door for crime to increase, and allow it to take the lead,” he said.

Vasquez noted that the profession of policing is not for acquiring material wealth or higher pay. Instead, “we want to make things better for our friends, our families, and communities. It’s a calling, and sometimes, it’s a destiny,” he said.

Vasquez said that the job of policing has the authority of God. Citing Romans chapter 13, he said, “it tells us that God has given us the right and the authority to do the job we do, but we must do the job the way He prescribes. Romans says that authorities are God’s servants, and we must be servants. Will you become angry because someone interfered with your lunch break? Or you had to make that extra report…is that using God’s authority the way He wants us to? Matthew 5:9 says, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.’ And today, you become those peacekeepers,” he said.

“Be the officer that everyone remembers as the one who loved to serve others,” Vasquez implored the graduates.

The new officers graduated from the San Angelo Police Department’s Basic Police Officer Class 2014-A.