Apopka resident, police academy grad joins Windermere Police Department

Serving as a police officer and helping others was something Apopka resident Griffin Hebel never thought twice about: He just knew he wanted to do so.

“I’ve always planned on going into law enforcement; it wasn’t a split-second decision,” Hebel said. “It’s always been a draw for me.”

Now, the 21-year-old is fresh out of Seminole State College’s Law Enforcement Academy and is putting that training to use as the newest officer at the Windermere Police Department.

The department is small, having only 13 officers, but Sgt. Mark DeStefano said each candidate is thoroughly vetted and goes through the same 14-week training process. Some qualities the department looks for in new officers include maturity, integrity, honesty and a good work ethic.

“Even in a young officer right out of the police academy, we look at their scores, prior jobs, school records — it’s all very important to us,” DeStefano said.

Hebel’s addition to the department is especially notable because he is the first police academy graduate WPD has hired under Chief David Ogden.

TRAINING DAYS

Seminole State’s Law Enforcement Academy program requires 770 total program hours, and candidates must meet a host of requirements to enroll. Among them are submission of a completed law enforcement/corrections/crossover application, completing and passing the Criminal Justice Basic Abilities test and successfully completing a physical assessment.

Once in the program, students are introduced to the world of law enforcement and Florida laws and legislation. From there, they learn and gain necessary skills in a controlled environment: interviewing and report writing, vehicle and firearm operations, defense tactics, first aid, criminal investigations, traffic crash investigations, crime scene to courtroom and more. 

“There wasn’t terribly much for me mindset-wise in preparing for the academy,” said Hebel, a 2013 Apopka High School graduate. “I did ROTC in high school but didn’t have any other special training besides the academy. It (the academy) was fun, it was a good time.”

Hebel completed the program earlier in July and was officially sworn in with WPD by July 23, noting that the agency was a good fit for him because of its size.

“It’s a smaller agency, and I was looking for that,” he said. “I didn’t necessarily want to jump into a large agency right off the bat. I’m young and don’t have a ton of experience. It’s definitely a learning experience, it’s new. It’s different from what the academy is — a controlled environment. In the academy, I pretty much knew what was going on a lot of the time, but here, I’ve definitely had a lot to learn.”

Throughout the next 14 weeks, he will learn even more as he rides along with officers on different shifts to get his bearings and to get acquainted with the town. After that, he will be allowed to patrol the streets himself.

“No matter where the officer comes from, they all get the same standardized training,” DeStefano said. “Nobody’s going to be the exception. That keeps us into the mode of all officers being equal. We want everyone to have the same type and level of training.”

CLIMBING THE RANKS

Despite recent tragedies involving police officers being injured or killed in the line of duty — such as in Dallas and Baton Rouge — Hebel’s decision to serve as a law-enforcement officer remains firm, and his family is proud of his accomplishments. 

“With everything that’s happened, it’s tragic, but it hasn’t affected my decision,” he said. “My family’s fine with it. My mom’s brother was in the Air Force, so they’re not too worried about any of that. They never raised a concern about it. I didn’t join because of anything external in the world. I joined because I wanted to do this job, and that’s about as simple as it gets.”

Although Hebel is already sworn in, Ogden said in a Facebook post that he will be recognized at the Aug. 9 Windermere Town Council meeting with a special swearing-in ceremony. WPD also will be pinning Hebel’s badge at the SSC Law Enforcement Academy’s graduation ceremony Aug. 18.

Going forward, Hebel will be working on an associate’s degree in criminal justice at SSC and eventually plans to finish up his education at UCF while enjoying his time with WPD.

“I don’t have a firm map set out for exactly where I want to go in my career,” he said. “I’m definitely going to work on getting my degree ... and rank up.”

Contact Danielle Hendrix at [email protected].