Wilson residents wanted to take the opportunity to acknowledge their police chief during National Hispanic Heritage Month, so former city councilman Stan Welch thought it would be an excellent time to point out the qualities of Wilson Police Chief Felix Hernandez.
Welch was on the city council when Hernandez was hired, and said he checked out Hernandez’ employment history and references thoroughly. Prior to working for the City of Wilson, Hernandez attended the police academy and Santa Rosa Junior College in California, majoring in the administration of justice. He also attended the police academy in Oklahoma City. He has attended several training schools on narcotics. He is a state certified K-9 drug dog handler and drug interdiction officer. He served in the U.S. Army for five years and is a Vietnam veteran.
Hernandez was hired in December 2004 as a Wilson police officer. Two weeks later he was appointed assistant police chief. When the former chief resigned, in July 2005, the city council appointed Hernandez chief. He ran for election in 2006 and drew no opponents for the position.
“There’s only three in Latino police chiefs in the state of Oklahoma, I think,” Welch said. “He is the one for the largest city, which is Wilson. He is very highly trained. He has to hire police officers and a lot of times send them to be trained. A lot of people don’t realize the awesome responsibilities of a small town police chief.”
Welch noted Hernandez works with a small budget. Hernandez was only budgeted $8,000 for gas to operate approximately five vehicles this year, according to Welch.
“He has so many restraints that he has to work under and he does a wonderful job out here,” Welch said. “He has to try to set up training schedules for these new officers. He has to operate within his budget and bend over backwards to please the city council ... The responsibility of hiring somebody off the street and give them a badge and gun is an awesome responsibility. He has the same problems that Chief (David) Leonardo has in Ardmore and he has a smaller force.”
Considering Hernandez’ budget woes, he has done an exceptionally good job, according to Wilson resident Frank Schaaf.
“He’s having a difficult time retaining officers, but that’s through no fault of his own,” Schaaf said. “I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we get the officers trained and they move on to a bigger paying department. You can’t fault them for wanting to better themselves. Felix runs a tight ship ... He does a good job.”
Former city councilman Hurshel Austin said he has known Hernandez ever since the chief came to Wilson. He’s doing a better job than some of the previous chiefs, according to Austin.
“He’s so much smarter,” Austin said. “He’s well qualified for that job. I think he is doing real good.”
Hernandez said the community of Wilson has been good to him.
“They have always accepted me, never made mention of my heritage,” Hernandez said. “It’s just like if I was a regular Wilsonite. We only have two Hispanic families here. It’s not like we have a large portion of Hispanics. They have been really outstanding in that regard.”
