Southlake Police Welcome Lateral Officer Corey Ventura

The Southlake Police Department recently welcomed lateral Officer Corey Ventura to the force.  Officer Ventura came from Tacoma Police Department in Washington state after serving there seven years.

He was born in Hawaii, moved to Washington and graduated with a B.A. at Eastern Washington University.  He originally went to school to become a high school teacher, but since law enforcement had been a part of his whole life, he changed course.  After all, his dad was an officer for Tacoma PD and he got to work alongside him before his father retired.

In choosing Southlake, Officer Ventura wanted to work for a smaller city where community values and service were top priority.  He was tired of the larger agency workload where he was sent from call to call to call each shift, and instead wanted to work more in the line of community policing.

Officer Ventura has been working the streets on an abbreviated Field Training program for the last six weeks, and has found the stark differences between Washington state and Texas.  For one, the heat is a big game changer.  “I have sweat more than I ever have in my life and it’s not even the dead of summer,” he said.  “But I love the heat, so I’m not complaining, but it’s definitely going to take a while to adapt.”  He also said using the word “y’all” doesn’t come out as smoothly as he’d like yet.

As his training continues and he grows close to completing FTO, Officer Ventura said he loves this job and is so thankful that he can continue serving the citizens of Southlake.