Student Experience: Bill Doc Lowden

“After getting out of the service and going through some hard family times, I started back to school using GI benefits. I was sworn in as a reserve police officer in March 2011, three months to the date after graduating from Cedar Valley’s Law Enforcement Academy in December 2010. Now I’m getting my prerequisites out of the way to earn my associate degree – I’m going to go school until my benefits run out. 

“I started the Law Enforcement Academy as a 46-year-old and it was a gut check. It was very challenging and my maturity was both an advantage and a disadvantage. I had the benefit of having had life experiences, but the academic part was my Achilles’ heel because I had been out of a learning environment for so many years. I was able to fall back on my military training with the concept of teamwork and it helped build a camaraderie with my other classmates. I got them to help me with academics and I helped them get perspective on things with my real-life experiences. 

“What I like about law enforcement is that no day is the same as another. There is constant interaction with various people and cultures and that’s what makes it both so interesting and so challenging.”

Bill Lowden is a reserve police officer with the Milford Police Department, 20 miles south of Waxahachie and completed Basic Officer Peace Training at Cedar Valley's Law Enforcement Academy. He retired from the U.S. Navy after 20 years, having served as a navy corpsman, machinist tool and die maker and military police officer, retiring as a Petty Officer Second Class (E5).

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