Law enforcement leader reaches milestone

When Pflugerville Police Chief Charles Hooker started his career with the department in May 1983, it included just one other officer, the man who was the chief at the time. The two shared a typewriter, a telephone and two filing cabinets in their small office.

"When you're sitting in a 39,000-square-foot facility today, a modern police department, it's quite a change," Hooker said.

Hooker graduated from the Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas and worked as an officer in Cedar Park for three years before coming to Pflugerville.

As chief, Hooker's primary duty includes running the operations side of the department. He also acts as the city emergency management coordinator and still patrols the streets, as do all officers in the department.

What made you decide to become a police officer?

My brother was an Austin Police Department officer for a number of years. I got an opportunity to ride around the city of Austin with him, and I got the bug.

What attracted you to the job?

At that time I think it was the camaraderie that I saw with him and his shift, working the streets of Austin. It seemed like a good occupation.

What was it like your first year? What surprised you about it?

How quiet it was. I came from Cedar Park where there were six country-and-western bars ... and you stayed really busy on weekends and Friday nights. When I came to Pflugerville patrolling the streets ... pretty much at 10 p.m. the sidewalks rolled up, and I had to wait till 5 a.m. when the farmers woke up to see any cars moving throughout the city. It was awfully quiet [and] more than a little boring on more than one occasion.

Is there one case that stood out for you from those early days?

I think the first homicide that we had here in Pflugerville that I worked. It was a cab driver who was shot and killed by an individual who had come from a party in Austin and then taken a cab out here. Shot and killed the cab driver. Fortunately, we were able to locate that suspect and he was ultimately convicted and sent to prison.

What would you say to someone who is thinking about joining the force?

For someone thinking of becoming a police officer I would let them know that it's a business that requires a lot of sacrifice, not only their personal sacrifice but their family's sacrifice. It's not an easy job to take and hold and maintain a family. A holiday is just another day on the calendar for a police officer, and they need to think long and hard about that. It is a noble profession and one that I would highly recommend, but it has its downsides.

How many tickets have you written?

I think I probably wouldn't average more than three or four a month as police chief. Over my career, probably thousands—that was all there was to do in Pflugerville in the early days. You can ask a lot of the high school students. Back in those days, they really helped me stay busy.

What has been the best part of the job for you?

The people. Since 1979, this has been my home, and I've met and worked with some of the finest people in the state of Texas or the United States, I believe. That includes the citizens of this community and also the people that I work with on a daily basis. You realize it's not just one person—it takes all of us to do the job. A whole lot of people have been involved in this agency over the past 30 years that I've had the honor to work with and truly appreciate.

What do you think makes a good police officer?

What it takes to make a really good police officer is a person that cares. ... That's what makes all the difference. They don't have to be the smartest, the fastest, the anything, but if they care, they're going to look at every situation differently than somebody who doesn't. And I think the best police officers I've ever seen and the kind I want here are the kind that care—care about the community, care about the department, care about the city, care about their families. That really makes a fine police officer.

What situations have scared you?

We get scared, there's no doubt about it. [One time] I wasn't particularly scared, but I thought it was unusual. We were running a search warrant at a residence in San Antonio. The man came to the door with a Doberman and a gun in his hand. We took care of that and we were going through the residence, and I started locating bomb-making materials. I ran across a number of books in there about how to grow marijuana, how to run meth labs and different things like that. Then I ran across some plastic explosives in another desk. I went to a table and I flipped up a cover that was on the table—under there was a land mine. I decided about that point I'd searched enough and we evacuated not only the house but about half the block.

The word 'scared' is always there. I've been shot at and had knives pulled on me multiple times. I think I've been most scared in a couple of high-speed pursuits. Not recently. ... I think we've gotten a little more careful in where and how we chase cars than we did back in the old days, [but] we still chase the bad guy here.