Overweight Army Pilot seeking diet/programming guidance

[Booman]

Sex: Male
Age: 32
Height: 6'0
Weight: 225
BF: 28.4% (BodPod)

Weightlifting history:
Last year did 6 months NLP up to 315 squat. Took 6 months off. This year did another 4 month NLP back to 315. Then switched to Madcow for another four months.

Current 5 rep Maxes:
Squat 355 (each workout feels like I'm about to fail)
Press 160 (pretty much stalled)
Bench 230 (could keep going a few more weeks)
Deadlift 410 (could keep going a few more weeks)

Diet: Pretty trashy. I push myself to eat more than I want, trying to hit protein goals with eggs, beef, yogurt etc. Still eat treats every now and then like chips or ice cream. No soda and rarely eat candy. I don't count calories. BF was around 26% for most of this year but the last test put me at 28% (I kinda broke the required fast a little, which might have skewed it. I can't fit into any of my 36" pants anymore, and I now fully fill 38".

My circumstances: on a military exercise all this week, so no lifting, and another field exercise scheduled for 3 weeks in January. I plan on joining the police academy exactly 1 year from now. I have three kids under the age of four, so I really can't let my workouts go over 1.5 hours tops (that scared me away from Texas Method, along with my age)

Goals: 500/400/300/200 lifts, and bodyweight preferably under or around 20%, ideally before the police academy next year.

My question:
I heard you recommend 15-25% BF. Given that I'm at 28%, would you recommend I go on a cut to get back in that range? Or should I take advantage of my weight to keep putting weight on the bar until the police academy? Or should I just clean up my diet? Any preferred program for a cut? I don't cry when I look in the mirror, and aesthetics aren't my main goal, but I kinda worry that I'm slowly creeping towards the 30% fat range. But I also feel my lifts are relatively low, and I don't know if I've "earned the right" to go on a cut (it also seems like a difficult and complicated process, whereas I'm very comfortable with the plug and play format of Mehdi's Madcow app, which makes for quick workouts without much thought.)

I appreciate any thoughts or guidance you have to offer!

[Robert Santana]

You're on the edge and your bodyweight is good for your height. Stay where you are, don't gain anymore, and continue adding weight to the bar and I suspect that number will drop below 25% as the ratio of muscle increases. Do not drop below 220.