Raul Barraza has been in law enforcement since 2013, when he began his career in corrections for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. 
He then decided to take a different path and joined the Midland County Sheriff’s Office Detentions Center in July 2014. He became a licensed jailer with the Midland County Sheriff’s Office in March 2015. After having two years and four months of working in corrections, he was grateful to be able to attend the El Paso Community College Law Enforcement Academy. 
He graduated from the academy in June 2018 and was rehired by the Midland County Sheriff’s Office as a licensed peace officer in August 2018. He was soon promoted from the Detention Center to the Patrol Division. He gained his basic peace officer license as a Patrol Deputy. He was selected to become a field training officer (FTO) throughout the years. 
He trained several new probationary patrol deputies. In March 2022, after working on patrol for three years and six months, he was given the opportunity to join the Office of Death Investigation. 
During his time as an investigator, he has gained an intermediate peace officer license. He has also been given a chance to attend a Homicide and Death Investigation course in Georgetown, Tx. 
He has also taken courses on officer response to victim precipitated suicide, statement analysis, forensics, crime scene management, human remains identification, homicide investigation, eyewitness evidence identification, evidence collection, control and storage, and crime scene investigation.