Mario Williams of the Bills Appears to Be the Reason a Police Academy in Texas is Suspended

In May, Mario Williams graduated from a police academy called Lone Star Law Enforcement Academy, setting up his second career playing the role of Hightower when the Police Academy re-makes begin in a decade. Williams, the $96 million defensive end, was featured in the above video by the school, wearing his uniform. According to that story, Williams was able to complete a five to six month course of instruction in just over three months “with the help of Lone Star and its instructors.”

Before moving on, I have to share this blurb from that story about Williams graduating, provided by one of the instructors:

"Stewart said it did not take him long to discover Williams’ passion for law enforcement. “During the second week of class, in the classroom, I asked the question, ‘who would see themselves as a law enforcement officer in 20 years’ and he was the only one that raised his hand,” Stewart said."

A police academy with a room full of students that don’t want to be police officers? That’s worse than law school.

Or maybe they knew something about the Academy. That accelerated training for Williams has Lone Star in some hot water. According to a story originally reported last week by KTRK, Lone Star has been suspended from providing law enforcement instruction by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE). According to KTRK, the investigation by TCOLE began with an allegation that a cadet graduated without completing the required course work. Graduation required 660 hours of instruction, which Williams supposedly completed in just over half the normal time. The cadet’s name was blacked out, but KTRK learned that it was Mario Williams. After TCOLE began its investigation, it found numerous violations, and suspended the Academy.

Here’s what the Conroe Courier said about the investigation as it related to Williams (h/t: GritsforBreakfast/Stephanie Stradley)

"Regarding Williams, the document stated that an instructor was not supervised during one-on-one off-site instruction with the cadet, the cadet’s attendance records were well below advisory board requirements, no learning objectives or course evaluations from private instruction sessions with the cadet were on file, no testing documentation was available for the cadet and that findings were that testing records were destroyed after the test."

Ouch. I’m sure Buffalo fans are happy to hear their expensive defensive end has a sore foot, an engagement ring controversy, and now, a police academy on suspension.