Kevin Coble-From SAPD Police Officer to High School Teacher
- Cedric Fisher
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
On July 31, 2026, the INFLUENCE Magazine Show hosted Kevin Coble, a retired San Antonio police officer, for a candid conversation about his more than 35 years of public service.
Kevin Coble is a military veteran, a retired San Antonio police officer, and an educator who has spent his entire adult life in uniform of one kind or another. In this interview, he walks through all three chapters.
Raised in Groton, Massachusetts by a single mother and an Irish immigrant grandmother whose advice he still quotes, Kevin left home at 19 for the United States Air Force, where he served a decade in security police, including a tour at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and time overseas at RAF Bentwaters and Woodbridge in England. In 1993, he joined the San Antonio Police Department, starting on West Patrol Dog Watch and averaging roughly twenty calls a night. He retired from SAPD on July 31st, 2018, and was standing in a high school classroom that same August.
From there, Kevin taught law enforcement for four years at Douglas MacArthur High School and four more at Samuel Clemens High School before moving to the first responder academy, where he now helps prepare young men and women who want to become police officers and firefighters. Along the way, he funneled dozens of students into the SAPD Public Safety Corps pipeline, and today former students of his serve at SAPD, Bexar County, Comal County, and Guadalupe County.
25 years on the street taught Kevin Coble something important, specifically in the ongoing debate about the use of police body cameras. Kevin explains, “A broken taillight used to end with a warning and a 'get that fixed." Now it has to be documented, and standard procedure means running you for warrants, so a courtesy call takes longer than a citation ever did. The camera didn't change the officer. It changed what the officer is allowed to let go.”
Kevin offers his experienced opinion: “But what the body cameras have done is inadvertently taken that discretion away. I can't just go up now and say, "Cedric, um, get that taillight fixed." I have to document it.”
That said, Kevin wasn't against body cameras. He was one of the officers SAPD picked to teach the whole department how to wear them, and he says roughly 99% of officers are doing exactly what they're supposed to out there.
After retiring from law enforcement, Kevin stepped into the classroom, first at the high school level and now at San Antonio College. “I don't have anything to prove to anybody, but I wanted to serve, I wanted to help people, and I continue to do that through education.” Kevin teaches young people entering the criminal justice field, and it is important to him that the students realize the responsibility and weight of the profession. “You have to take each individual person that you come in contact with and treat them with dignity, respect, thoughtfulness, and be caring.”
Traveling through Europe with his wife, who is originally from Spain, has influenced Kevin’s worldview and approach to leadership. “People are different, yeah, but we’re a lot alike. As long as you’re respectful to people, they’re gonna respect you. Respect is earned. It’s not given. My travels fundamentally changed the way I look at community service.”
Kevin knows well how important second chances are. At 17 and a high school senior, Kevin was fresh off a state championship football season and thought of himself as “the big man on campus.” The night of the school dance, a bunch of my friends and I went but arrived too late, and Foots, the Ayer, Massachusetts local police officer who was there as security, wouldn’t let us in. All I wanted was to see my school crush, who was standing there waving at me.” Kevin made a bad decision that night. A physical altercation ensued, and Kevin could have easily been arrested. “I would have never gotten into the military,” states Kevin. But Foots let them go. Monday morning, in the principal’s office, Kevin received what he calls “the best verbal butt chewing I ever had in my life.” Kevin admits that what affected him most during this ordeal was realizing he had disappointed three men he admired. That was punishment enough.
A YouTube short from this interview on the use of body cams by police officers has generated over 106,000 views! See it here.
Watch the full interview here!
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