Working the beat is a badge of honor for sheriff’s corporal

James Breneman, a corporal at the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department Ramona substation, caught the bug for law enforcement after joining the sheriff’s Explorer Program in Poway in 1993.

After a year-and-a-half as an Explorer, Breneman had a taste for what a law enforcement career would look like, but he aged out at 21 years old. Although he would have stayed the course professionally, the responsibilities of caring for a family and being safe took precedence.

So, after graduating high school, Breneman took a job as an auto mechanic, then moved on to become a pressman for Escondido-based The Ken Blanchard Cos. He later worked as a pressman for Nuear Electronics, printing postal ready, direct mail advertising pieces.

But he never lost the desire to become a law enforcement officer, and with encouragement from his wife of 25 years, Sherry, he decided to pursue his true calling at age 34.