PHOTO #1: Sgt. Melissa Rendon-Wasicek speaks during an Aug. 16 walkout ceremony in honor of her retirement from the Victoria Police Department.
PHOTO #2: The Victoria Police Department hosted a walkout ceremony Aug. 16 in honor of Sgt. Melissa Rendon-Wasicek’s retirement.
Sgt. Melissa Rendon-Wasicek celebrated her honorable retirement from the Victoria Police Department during a walkout ceremony Aug. 16 in the 300 block of South Bridge Street. Rendon-Wasicek took her final “walkout,” in which an officer walks out of the police station for the last time to signify the end of a law enforcement career. Walkout ceremonies are organized on a voluntary basis by retirees’ past and present co-workers. The chief of police approves the event and verifies the retirees’ status as “honorably retired from the Victoria Police Department.”
Rendon-Wasicek was hired by the Victoria Police Department and attended the Victoria College Police Academy in 1995. She served as a patrol officer, field training officer, dispatcher, senior patrol officer, patrol sergeant and detective (property crimes). In 2004, she left the department and worked for the Victoria County District Attorney’s Office and the Victoria County Sheriff’s Office before returning to the Victoria Police Department in 2014 to serve in the Crime Reduction Unit. After being promoted to sergeant, she was assigned to the Patrol Division and served with the patrol shift, the Highway Interdiction Team and the Street Crimes Team.
Rendon-Wasicek has been on the board of the Texas Gang Investigators Association since 2003 and is currently the 1st vice president and a member of the Texas Violent Gang Task Force. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston-Victoria and an advanced certificate from the Force Science Institute.