Law enforcementCorpus Christi police wants new recruits to be Army Strong

The Corpus Christi Police Department wants to make it known that if you are an Army veteran coming home, they have a job waiting for you.

Corpus Christi Police Chief Floyd Simpson announced on Friday that the department will become a Partnership for Youth Services or PaYS, which has been around since the 1980s

The Caller reports that nine of the twenty-five cadets in this year’s training academy are military veterans and, according to Simpson, more than 100 of the current 414 employees in the department have a military background

The concept of the partnership is to give veterans who are honorably discharged an advantage when they apply for a career in law enforcement due to the similarities of the positions.

“The transition from military service to law enforcement is one that’s very natural,” Army Captain Christopher Szymanski told Caller.

According to Army representatives, the program gives armed forces recruiters another way to appeal to young men and women who are thinking to joining the Army as they can not only pursue a career in the Army, but continue to serve their community once they get home.

Police Commander John Houston feels the partnership came at the perfect time. “We changed an entire process this year. On Feb. 18 we began our training class with the largest group of females ever and we’re in the process of hiring another 25 cadets. So it couldn’t have come at a better time,” Houston told the Caller.

The Nueces County Sheriff’s Office, which is also located in Corpus Christi, made the same agreement with the Army last July, becoming the first Coastal Bend law enforcement agency to join the PaYS program.

Amazon, Goodyear and Harley-Davidson also have their own variations of the PaYS program.