Former Miami Heat Star Shaquille O'Neal Becomes South Florida Reserve Police Officer: Department to Figure Out Shaq Shoe, Uniform Size [Pic]
On Tuesday, former Miami Heat star Shaquille O'Neal, known worldwide as Shaq, was sworn in as a reserve police officer at the Doral police department.
Miami Herald reports the four-time NBA champion had applied to the Doral police department in September. He went through the typical application process and a standard background check before his acceptance. O'Neal will be paid $0, according to police Chief Donald De Lucca, and will be paying his own health insurance.
O'Neal was accepted into the police department during a private ceremony at the station.
As a reserve cop in Doral, O'Neal will serve mainly as a role model for children, De Lucca said.
"I want them to be able to say: 'If Mr. O'Neal can do it, I can do it,'" De Lucca explaied.
The "Upload with Shaquille O'Neal" host chose Doral because he said De Lucca is a great leader.
"I'm learning from him, watching him. He's a good friend of mine, and in order to become a great leader, you have to master their style and then create your own style," O'Neal said.
Reserve cop is just the beginning: O'Neal wants to be a sheriff or police chief in either Orange County, Dade County or Broward, Florida.
"But, I have to work from the ground up first," O'Neal said.
Meanwhile, finding a uniform to fit the 7-foot-1, 324-pound O'Neal has been a challenge for the Doral police department.
"His shoe size is huge, but nobody knows the exact number," the senior executive assistant to the chief, Carlos Arango, said. "At some point we'll get him an official polo shirt, but for now he has his badge."
This is not O'Neal's first time working in law enforcement. Prior to Doral, he served as a reserve cop at the Port of Los Angeles police department; the Miami Beach Police Department, Tempe Police Department in Arizona and the Golden Beach police department.
While working in Miami, O'Neal also traveled to Virginia to work on the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program.
O'Neal, 43, has been interested in law enforcement since he was a teenager. His stepfather was an Army sergeant, and two of his uncles were police officers.
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