06:59 PM CST on Wednesday, January 4, 2006

By Jason Whitely / 11 News

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Even though the city is putting more patrols in certain “problem” areas, the overall number of officers is down because of a staffing shortage.

A former lawman told 11 News the department is passing up qualified candidates.

No question, this class of cops was badly needed in Houston.  A total of 63 cadets graduated and became officers last July.

Paul Hillman was supposed to be one of them.  “They’re not interested in officers with experience,” the former officer said.

Hillman said it was his age that forced him to resign from the academy.

At 43, he was the oldest in the class.

He said he was the target of age discrimination by HPD supervisors and the butt of jokes by cadets who drew a picture of him with a walker.

In a 12-page letter to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Hillman complained trainers harassed him about his age.

Hillman said there were different standards for younger cadets and he claims he was threatened with termination when he complained.

A department spokesman said there would be no response until HPD’s Internal Affairs Division and the EEOC complete their investigations.

“There is no reason for any kind of age bias in the classroom,” Hillman said.  “You’re either capable of doing the job or not. And I’ve been capable of doing the job, proven, for 15 years and I was adhering to all the standards.”

Hillman was a Houston police officer for 12 years and the department admits he was an exemplary one.  But he left to start a business in 1998.

When HPD announced another academy last year he signed up and was accepted.

Hillman never knew that age would be an issue.

“Yes it bothers me [because of] the way I was treated by a department I considered to be my family,” he said.