Before the Badge: Lubbock Police recruits back in classroom before academy ramps up

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - Lubbock Police recruits are now 20 weeks into their journey of becoming sworn officers. A few weeks ago, these recruits were finishing up their most demanding physical challenge yet, their defensive tactics final. Now, they’re getting a slight break by being back in the classroom learning a subject you may not think about - Spanish.

The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement requires recruits to spend 16 hours in Spanish class, but the Lubbock Police Department requires 22.

While census data shows about 20 percent of the American population is Hispanic, in Lubbock, that jumps up to nearly 37 percent.

Recruit Anthony Hernandez says one of their instructors told recruits 60 percent of the police force is made up of Hispanic people, but only a few speak Spanish.

“So, they’re just trying to introduce, to get everybody to speak Spanish. And because the communities, there’s a huge part of community that actually speaks Spanish,” he said. “So, it’s really good to know what they’re saying and try to have a conversation with them, as well.”

Recruits learned some conversational basics, then moved on to how to help people and investigate after a crash and eventually practiced traffic and felony stops.

Being in the classroom is familiar for Hernandez, who was a fifth grade reading teacher before joining the academy.

“Of course, my mom’s a very protective mom, you know, being a Hispanic mom. She’s like worried and saying ‘Oh, you sure you want to do this?’ you know, and, ‘Teaching, you don’t have to worry about stuff like that.’ And I told her that everything will be fine. God has protected me this long, so. And it’s something that I’ve been wanting to do and looking forward to,” he said.

Hernandez’ faith plays a big part in why he wants to serve and protect.

“I want to lead by action and not by words. So, whenever I go somewhere or whenever I do something, they don’t see Anthony, but they kind of see Jesus,” he said.

Meanwhile, in another classroom, Recruit Ryan Michael is preparing to serve and protect somewhere new. He was a police officer in Florida and is now part of LPD’s lateral transfer program.

“I actually had to pay to go to the academy in Florida. So, this is actually crazy to me. When they told me I was actually getting paid to go through the [LPD] academy, I was excited,” he said.

Since he and his classmate weren’t Texas peace officers, they’re spending a couple weeks studying up to pass their state exam. Then, they will start their abbreviated four-week academy.

“It’s definitely a lot different here. It’s more, you can you can tell they work out more and all this other stuff, it was more of a college setting in Florida,” he said.

His wife is from Lubbock, so they moved back to her hometown so they could be closer to the hospital for their son’s medical care.

“I’m getting a $20,000 pay increase, and so it definitely helps out a lot financially. You know, I’m not having to worry about my wife working now and she can help raise our two kids easier,” he said.

After they take their state exam, those two laterals will be joined by a few others from Texas for their abbreviated academy.

As for the regular recruits, what started as a class of 16, is now down to nine. They still have 10 weeks to go, with some unique challenges coming up, like being pepper sprayed.

KCBD NewsChannel 11 will continue to follow their journey Before the Badge.