Officer Vilai Thonginh, or Officer V, doesn’t utter a word. As his boots thump the ground, his belt shines in the sun, and his iconic cowboy hat stands tall, he is the great symbol of the Texas lawman. Why would he feel the need to speak? He has the winds of a Texas-sized tradition blowing at his back.
The hat itself is a new addition to campus police uniforms this semester. The Dallas Police Department announced late August that the hat would be returning to uniform permissions, and hardly anyone was happier than Thonginh. “I’m a retired state trooper, so the hat has always been a part of me.”
After 16 years serving under his black leather Stetson hat and winding up at Brookhaven, he was disappointed that the uniform regulations excluded his missing piece. However, after years of petition, he and his cohorts requests were finally heeded, and the cowboy hat has returned to his on-duty outfit…