Working For the Future
business, sheriff, t. michael o'connor, victoria,
T. Michael O’Connor is a lawman through and through.
Since he was a child, the now sheriff of Victoria has always tagged along with family friends in the profession. He got his first job in a nearby county’s sheriff’s office before he even went to college.
After a few years at Texas A&M, O’Connor returned to Victoria and began a dual career in his family’s ranching business and local law enforcement. As he became immersed in the community over the years, he began to notice patterns of crime that weren’t receiving attention from local officials.
“I was raised in a family where we were taught that we are the stewards of not only our land but our community for not only our generation, but for generations to come, and I felt like someone needed to stand up and start making a change,” O’Connor says. “The only way that I could see fit ... was to take the position on myself to get things done.”
In 2004, O’Connor won his fellow Victorians’ vote of confidence when they elected him to office. Now, as sheriff of the county in which he is a fifth-generation resident, he feels a special sense of responsibility to enforce the law.
O’Connor sees his office as something of a calling, believing that he’s working not only to protect the people who live in Victoria today, but also the children and grandchildren of the future.
“I didn’t want my children to come to me someday and say, ‘Dad, you had the wherewithal and the resources to do something. Why didn’t you?’” he says. “If anything, I want to at least set a legacy to those that come behind me to take it on and enhance it.”
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Story by Michaela Jackson
Photo by J. Kyle Keener
