Recently, Inside the Star introduced you to a group of new Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) recruits as they went through the challenging in-house portion of field training. Now they’ve hit the road with Field Training Officers (FTO) who continue their instruction and give them daily grades on every conceivable aspect of being a deputy. Though most recruits from his class are nearly finished, Deputy Luis Hernandez had a training injury that delayed his start by a few weeks. He may be new to law enforcement, but he’s no stranger to overcoming obstacles.
“I joined the Marine Corps the day I turned 17 and left home,” Deputy Hernandez said. His father inspired his career choice. “He was in the Marines and came from Puerto Rico, and afterwards became a cop in Waterbury, Connecticut where he retired.” Deputy Hernandez was in the 0311 Infantry, on a close quarters battle recapture tactics team, a scout sniper team, and was a martial arts instructor. He planned to devote his life to the Marine Corps but on his second deployment in Afghanistan as an infantry squad leader he was hit by an IED and almost died.
“Most people don’t realize by just looking at me, but I was unable to walk. I had a paralyzed right arm and spent most of 2010 in rehab learning how to walk again.” He’d been struck 13 times by bullets and shrapnel, and even after multiple surgeries still has a bullet lodged in his left thigh as well as shrapnel in his lower back and both legs. His injuries were so severe that he was medically discharged from the Marine Corps.
“I never expected to leave the Marines so I found myself stuck with no idea what to do.” He’d been told his body would never be capable of hard physical work again, but he refused to accept this diagnosis. “I decided to get into fitness training and learn about the body to help me understand my issues and work around them.” Not only did he rehabilitate his body, but he started doing bodybuilding and fitness competitions and within two years won his World Beauty Fitness and Fashion Pro Card. “I love to use that as inspiration for others to understand that our bodies can do much more than what we may be told we can achieve.”
Deputy Hernandez got into bodyguarding for a while, protecting celebrities like Chance the Rapper and Lana Del Rey. Later he worked for the private military company Academi (formerly known as Blackwater) in Kabul and for the Federal Protective Service with the Department of Homeland Security.
When the time came that he needed a change, though, his thoughts immediately turned to Florida. He’d been stationed in Jacksonville before and loved Florida’s energy and atmosphere. “I wanted to get down here and just find a job that makes me happy.”
Aside from his delay in starting, FTO has been going well for Deputy Hernandez. His first week on the road with FTO Deputy Alex Robb was during Hurricane Ian so his early shifts involved very few calls and a lot of waiting. His first interesting call was a dispute over a parking space where a woman pushed in the mirrors and lifted the wiper blades of the vehicle that took the spot. He was faced with the conundrum of how to find the suspect and whether there was a criminal charge if she didn’t damage the car. Early in Phase One, the recruit mostly observes, but Deputy Hernandez had different ideas. “I actually asked my FTO if I could just go ahead and run the entire investigation and do all the talking.” If he missed anything Deputy Robb could chime in, but he wanted the opportunity to prove he could handle a call himself.
As he progressed through the four weeks of Phase One, Deputy Hernandez worked as many calls as he could to gain experience. Near the end of Phase One, though, they were dispatched to an armed home invasion robbery. In that one, his FTO took charge but had Deputy Hernandez watch carefully to learn how such a complicated incident should be handled, from setting a perimeter and calling K-9, to interviewing witnesses and calling out Forensics. The call took three days of intense investigation, culminating in finding the suspect hiding in his girlfriend’s mother’s house. “It was awesome to piece things together over a period of a few days and finally be the ones to catch the suspect and bring him to jail.”
FTO is about learning, and mistakes are part of the process. Geography is one of Deputy Hernandez’ biggest problems – being new to the area, he doesn’t know the roadways and neighborhoods well yet. Listening to radio traffic is another skill he had to master. He said in the beginning he always heard his own call sign, but sometimes missed other radio traffic. Once while he and his FTO were getting lunch a call came over the radio that a deputy was in a fight. Deputy Robb started running to the cruiser but Deputy Hernandez didn’t immediately react because he didn’t even hear what was happening. He felt terrible, but it drove the lesson home.
By Phase Two with a new FTO, Deputy Danny Mattox, he was doing even more of the work himself and patrolling an even more active area in south county. He said that Deputy Mattox does a lot of self-initiated activity and is very knowledgeable about finding drugs. “I feel lucky to have had two great FTOs who each have a great passion for this job and skills in different aspects of it. The things I’ve learned from both FTOs will stick with me my entire career.”
Once he is out of FTO and has some more experience under his duty belt, Deputy Hernandez has a lot of ambitions for his future with the PCSO. He says he likes that there are so many specialized units here and is learning about new ones every day, but he has a pretty clear idea where he wants to be eventually. “I have my eyes on a few things like SWAT and Narcotics.” Both of those are challenging, but that’s nothing new to Deputy Hernandez. “I have a huge passion for pushing myself, learning constantly and getting out there and into things as much as possible.”
Deputy Hernandez is happy with his move to Florida and his new career. “So far since I’ve lived here I’ve loved the area, the people, the agency, and everything about this move.” His family supports his decisions, even if his parents are fearful after his brush with death in the Marine Corps. “I know they would love for me to choose a cushy job for once, but they also know that’s not who I am.”
