Newest Officer Happy to be here
By John Earp
Quinn Cargile is the newest law enforcement officer with the Jal Police Department. Twenty-eight years old, with four years’ experience as an officer for Hobbs Police Department and about six months with the Eunice Police Department, he says he is happy to be an officer for the City of Jal. About his decision to leave Eunice, Cargile says, “Let’s just say the city was going in a direction I didn’t like.”
When asked, “Did you always want to be a police officer?” Cargile says, “Not really. It was one of the things that I was like, eh, this sounds fun. And I went through the Citizens Academy at Hobbs and could just kind of dip my toes in and see if I liked it. And I decided I would at least try it out and went through the Academy and sure enough, I liked it, so I’m here.”
Prior to pursuing his law enforcement career, Cargile worked as an electrician. He says, “I was working for my dad, since I was like 15. He gave me a set of tools for my 15th birthday and said, hey, we’re going to get working.” Cargile says he found he didn’t like the work of an electrician as much as he had thought he would, so after seven years he decided to try something else, which was law enforcement.
Cargile says he has a girlfriend and is planning on getting married soon. He says, “I’m in a house right now [in Hobbs] with a 3% interest rate, so I’m like, yeah, I’m just going to sit for a little while.” Cargile says it’s worth the extra driving time to continue living in Hobbs. His first shift working for Jal Police Department was the day after Labor Day.
When asked, “What is your favorite thing about being a police officer?” Cargile said, “Ah, that’s a tough one. Honestly, I would say the job itself is something that I enjoy doing. I enjoy the community aspect of police work. I enjoy showing up, helping people out, but also making sure that everybody is staying safe. And having discretion to be a little lenient when I am able to. My philosophy has always been, I’ll be as nice as you let me be. If you’re not letting me be nice to you, then you’re going to get a very different reaction out of me than, say, somebody who’s letting me be nice. And at the end of the day, there’s only so much I can do at the end of the day. Some days it’s like, well, sorry, bud. It doesn’t matter my personal feelings on this matter. I got a job to do.”
When asked what his least favorite thing about being a police officer is, he says, “Oh, man. Well, uh, honestly, if I’m being completely honest, it’s having to deal with the politics of the job. That’s honestly been the worst part of it recently for me, is just having to deal with the political machinations of people that are way above my pay grade, and it all trickles down to me, and I’m just a patrolman.” When asked to clarify that he was speaking about previous places he has worked and not Jal, he said, “Yes.”
Cargile continued, “I try to be an objective observer, but I’m in the community, too, and it seems to me like that there hasn’t been a lot of that with, you know, I mean, there’s always going to be politics when you’ve got any group of people in power. That’s always the case. But, you know, it seems like we don’t have, as far as I can gather, I don’t get the impression from [Chief] Mauricio that he, you know, lets that kind of stuff mess with him. You know what I mean? And so obviously, if the chief is in charge, his job is to be political. I mean, the chief’s job is to be a political figure that he take all of the politics and leave the rest of us out of it.”
When asked, “Is there anything that you’d like to tell the people of Jal as a new police officer?, Cargile says, “I’ll do my best out here. I’m only human. I’m sure I’m going to make mistakes, but I will do my best to correct them.” Cargile says he is “Happy to be here.”