7/18/78 – 12/31/79

In July 1978, while working for the Angelina County Sheriff's Department, Selman was offered a position as a Police Officer by the Diboll Police Department.  Better pay was one of the attractions offered by Diboll as they were one of the higher paying local agencies in the area for patrol officers at the time.  Selman started at Diboll PD in July of 1978 and gained valuable patrol experience while continuing work on his law enforcement degree at Angelina College.  Since Diboll was a pretty quiet town with few major crime problems at the time, a lot of the police patrol was focused on traffic enforcement on US Hwy 59 to reduce the hazards to local citizens that the large volume of traffic on US Hwy 59 posed.  The traffic enforcement objective was to maintain a strong visible police presence to slow down motorists passing through town.  No automobile traffic fatalities were recorded on US 59 inside Diboll city limits during the period of time Selman worked for Diboll.  The Diboll Police Department offered Tom numerous specialized training opportunities and Tom received many extra hours of training as he worked toward his next level of law enforcement certification.  Selman's tenure at Diboll was a source of excellent experience in police patrol and traffic enforcement.  Tom felt his place was in traffic enforcement and decided to seek a Trooper position on the Highway Patrol with the Texas Department of Public Safety.  Tom met the qualifications and applied to the DPS.  He was accepted on his first application attempt and he left Diboll PD at the end of 1979 after he graduated and received his Law Enforcement Degree from Angelina College.