Kerrville Police Department in the 1970’s had a budget-saving philosophy of hiring new officers and putting them on the street for several months before sending them to academy. Texas law only required that 240 hours of basic training be completed within a year of employment. By waiting several months, if it appeared that the new officer would not work out, they could fire him while he was still on probation without having incurred the expense of training. In those days, police departments were not concerned with lawsuits, so untrained rookies on the street were of little concern from the standpoint of agency liability.
The cheapest basic academy in Texas was the road-show basic taught as an extension course out of Texas A&M. It had been scheduled at the Texas National Guard Armory in San Antonio, but at the last minute, classroom arrangements there fell through. Stuck without a classroom, A&M was desperate and began searching everywhere.
They found an available room at the old Peacock Military Academy. Peacock had been a private school for boys whose parents wanted them to go into the military, primarily, troubled or delinquent boys. But by the early 1970’s, its popularity had dwindled, probably because of Vietnam. When it closed its doors, it had sat vacant for awhile, but had just been acquired by the Salvation Army when A&M was looking for a classroom. Renting a room to A&M was ideal for the Salvation Army and it solved the problem of finding a suitable facility for the class.
The only problem was the use for which the Salvation Army had bought the old academy. They had turned it into a home for “wayward” girls. The dorms were not full yet and neither were the classrooms, so it was a shared campus while basic police academy was in session.
So, in answer to the question, “Where did you graduate from police academy?” I answer, “From the Salvation Army Home for Wayward Girls.
I was valedictorian of the graduating class, which was not quite the honor it might seem. The salutatorian did not graduate with us. He was arrested a couple of days before graduation for armed robbery.
Many of the officers in class were working full-time shifts while attending academy. It seems our salutatorian was in uniform transporting a prisoner in his marked patrol car when he noticed the gas gauge was on empty. This was during the big gas crunch of the early 1970’s when it was not uncommon for gas stations to limit the amount of a purchase. He had pulled into a station with a five gallon maximum. The attendant had pumped five gallons and cut the pump off. Our classmate ordered him to fill the tank. The attendant refused. The prisoner chimed in, picking on the officer, telling him he was not any different from anyone else and should not be given any extra privileges. The officer got instantly angry and vented his frustration on the attendant.
He put his hand on the butt of his pistol in a manner intended to imply that he was about to draw the weapon. In a threatening manner, he repeated his order to fill the tank. The attendant filled the tank; the officer paid and drove off. The attendant immediately called the San Antonio Police and reported the incident. They worked the report as an armed robbery, thus ending the law enforcement career of our salutatorian.