Brownwood Police Sergeant Mitch Slaymaker has taken on a new role in law enforcement, as the newly elected 1st Vice President of the Texas Municipal Police Association.
Slaymaker is a familiar face in Brownwood, having been a patrol officer, working as a D.A.R. E. officer (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), and now a patrol sergeant overseeing patrol officers. He has been in law enforcement for 18 years with 14 years at the Brownwood Police Department.
Born in Red Deer, Alberta Canada, Slaymaker came to Brownwood when his wife Linda’s work as an RN brought her to Brownwood Regional Medical Center.
Slaymaker stated that his favorite thing about law enforcement is being able to uphold the highest morals, the best of what human society has to offer.
“Having faith of the public to uphold the best in what they believe in, if you can achieve that, then you’re successful and that’s pretty cool,” said Slaymaker.
Slaymaker joined TMPA years ago and his passion for law enforcement led him to become a more involved member, first at the local level, serving as the local Brownwood Municipal Police Association’s president. He was later asked by a friend, who is also a member, to run for regional director, which he did successfully about 8-10 years ago, according to Slaymaker. Most recently, he decided to run for the office of 1st Vice President and was elected at the organization’s annual conference which was held in Austin in July.
“The office of 1st Vice President is an at large position, so to have the confidence of nearly 20,000 officers is quite humbling,” said Slaymaker.
He explained that the organization’s mission is to “build a better cop through better training and representation.” TMPA, he said, is the largest law enforcement association in Texas and plays a special role in the lives of officers, offering benefits and protection for many circumstances. Benefits include legal protection, political advocacy, affordable mobile training, and local support. He further stated that during emergencies such as natural disasters, hurricanes or even situations like the explosion in West, Texas, that TMPA has an emergency response team that takes a special trailer to the site of the emergency and makes sure officers are taken care of. When emergencies take place, the officer still has to perform their duty, while suffering through the emergency as a citizen as well. Being an emergency responder, taking care of others and keeping the peace are the main priority so having a relief vehicle to have a meal, wash hands, get a clean change of clothes and even possibly relief from a duty shift by another member of the organization is a great benefit.
Slaymaker stated that he is honored to be an officer of the organization.
“TMPA is the most wonderful organization I have been a part of in my entire life,” said Slaymaker. “It’s very fraternal. The board of directors is composed of 19 working full time cops, there’s no bureaucrats running the organization.”
Slaymaker will serve a one year term as 1st Vice President of TMPA. TMPA represents more than 19,000 local, county and state law enforcement officers.
