At this month’s Liberty County Sheriff’s Departmental staff meeting, Chief Deputy Don Neyland announced that Patrol Deputy Ruben Garcia has been selected as the June Employee of the Month for his outstanding accomplishments in many fields of his assignments within the agency.
“Garcia is one of those deputies who goes about his duties in a most unassuming way but yet displays an outgoing personality and humor that makes him a joy to work with,” said Capt. Ken DeFoor, spokesperson for the sheriff’s office. “His quick wit is matched only by his quick actions in time of crisis and, according to his supervisor, is an excellent addition to the small team of deputies who patrol the fast-growing housing developments around the Plum Grove area of north Liberty County.”
In the last five months, Garcia has answered 288 calls for service in that area and conducted roughly 132 traffic stops. He also is being credited with helping reduce the number of burglaries in that area from 200 a month to only 1-2 per month.
One of Garcia’s most recent major accomplishments was helping identifying a key individual who recovered a critical piece of evidence in a recent bomb threat to the Cleveland Independent School District. The recovered evidence will be instrumental later in a court of law setting.
Garcia’s prior career field was training to become a teacher before deciding to become a peace officer. Teaching and instructing is still his eventual goal within the Sheriff’s Training Division. His approximate 348 hours of in-service training in the two-year period he has been with the Sheriff’s Office as well as his associate degree and soon to be bachelor’s degree is quickly putting him on that road leading him toward that goal.
Married with five children, Garcia’s off-duty focus is on family and their activities. On his off-duty time, Garcia is an avid motorcyclist. He is putting his love of motorcycles and law enforcement to use by heading up a motorcycle event for the upcoming benefit on June 22 for Deputy Richard Whitten, who was shot May 29 while attempting to arrest a murder suspect and remains in critical condition.
“So much of the time, calls for service are critical and have little room for humor or life-changing experiences for a deputy, but there are times when situations and circumstances do find their way into a call that has an eye-opening and rude awareness for an officer. So it was with our Employee of the Month when he was still a rookie with only three months on the street,” DeFoor said.
He explained that Garcia tried to help a woman in a rollover crash by crawling in a narrow opening in a broken window. In his attempt to rescue her, he became trapped inside the vehicle with her and had to be rescued by firefighters. The only thing injured that day, other than the vehicle, was Garcia’s pride.
“This is another example of Deputy Garcia’s wit and humor because he says if you can’t laugh at yourself that life would be very boring. Therefore, it is with appreciation and respect that the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office asks the public to join them in a salute and a tip of the hat to Deputy Ruben Garcia for being selected as Employee of the Month for June 2019,” DeFoor said.