Eleven Boerne Police officers were promoted Thursday morning in what Chief Steve Perez believes was a record-setting ceremony, including four experienced officers who were promoted to the newly formed corporal rank. Four officers also were advanced to sergeant and three were promoted to lieutenant.
Family and friends filled the rows of seats at nineteen:ten Church in support of their loved ones, and several local officials were in attendance for the occasion, including Boerne Mayor Tim Handren, City Manager BenThatcher, Assistant City Manager Danny Zincke, First Assistant Criminal District Attorney Katherine McDaniel, Brian Webb (EMS), Boerne Fire Chief Ray Hacker.
“After Jeff Page retired, I took over as chief of police,” Perez said. “So, shortly after that we had the opportunity to hold all these promotions. Thank you everybody for being here today. This is a huge occasion, especially for our department because I don’t think we’ve ever promoted so many people at one time.”
Perez and Assistant Chief Cody Lackey were promoted earlier this year after both former Police Chief Jim Kohler and Assistant Chief Jeff Page retired. Perez had been the city’s first police captain since 2019, but the position has since been retired, making lieutenant the highest rank after chief.
Corporals, sergeants and lieutenants were promoted that morning, and Perez said the local police department didn’t have a corporal position before this year. He said that prior to this change, there were senior officers who were doing the work of a corporal, which he said is the first rank of a noncommissioned officer.
Perez said corporals continue in their administrative work while also keeping an eye on their fellow officers. In all, four Boerne officers were promoted to the rank of corporal Thursday morning: Chris Padilla, Ricardo Gomez, David Chavez and Micah Binkley. Two of the officers had been with the local police force for about two decades – Binkley, who joined BPD in 2001, and Padilla, who put on his local badge for the first time in 2004. Chavez and Gomez were newer recruits to the Boerne team, but Chavez has 19 years of law enforcement experience and Gomez has both a law enforcement and military experience prior to joining BPD.
Sergeants, which is the next rank above corporal, are responsible for the entire shift, Perez said, meaning the position requires more administrative work. However, Perez said sergeants are also take charge during major incidents or crime scenes.
“Usually, especially in a town like Boerne, those sergeants are pretty much running this city while everybody is off,” Perez said. “So, you know, if anything happens after 5 o’clock, especially on the weekends and holidays or on those days when all the rest of us city people are at home, usually those sergeants and corporals are the ones who kind of make sure the city is being held together.”
Perez said all of the sergeants promoted that day will be covering patrol, with two of them overseeing night shifts and the other two covering day shifts. Promoted to sergeant were Lisa Rowe, Douglas Meuth, Cheyenne Weber and Bowen Patton. All of them have been with the local law enforcement agency for about a decade.
Rowe joined the local force in 2012 and was promoted to detective in 2015 before her corporal promotion earlier this year. Meuth signed up with BPD in 2009, having served as a patrol officer until 2018 when he was signed on as a school resource officer. Weber joined the force in 2010 and also served as a school resource officer from 2012 until 2014. He was named officer of the year in 2014 and was promoted to corporal earlier this year. Patton has been with BPD since 2013 and has served as a patrol corporal. He earned his bachelor’s degree in justice administration from Wayland Baptist University.
Next up is the rank of lieutenant, which is the highest rank a BPD officer can achieve under the assistant chief or chief of police.
“Lieutenants are the first commanders, I guess, of the different divisions in our department,” Perez said. “And so, we have three who will be getting promoted today. And those are because we have our patrol, which is our uniformed division, our criminal investigations division, which is our detective and stuff like that, and we also have one administrative helping us chiefs out.”
The three officers joined the rank of lieutenant Thursday were Greg Irvin, Chris Walk and James Schmidt.
Irvin has served with BPD for more than two decades, signing on in 1999, and has served as a sergeant since 2010. He was the city’s first community bike officer and has received three lifesaving awards and five fit for duty awards. Walk joined the local force in 2012 and has held many positions with the city’s agency, including detective in 2014, school resource officer in 2018, patrol sergeant in 2019 and most recently held the position of dispatch sergeant. Schmidt was brought on to BPD in 2015 and was promoted to sergeant last year. During his time with the force so far, he has earned several awards, including two lifesaving awards, officer of the year in 2019 and a medal of valor award in 2020. He has served as the crisis negotiation team leader since 2019.
“It is an honor to oversee the promotion of these officers and to work alongside them every day,” Perez said. “Each of these men and women have demonstrated a commitment to our community and to their profession. We are grateful for the support of the Boerne community.”
Comment
Comments