SROs love their jobs
By John Earp
Serving and protecting the precious children of any community is the duty of all good people. Those who choose to serve in the capacity of school resource officer (SROs are police officers specially trained to protect schools) fulfill their calling in life in their crucially important role in the education of our children. Officer Lee Flores was the first SRO for Jal School District six years ago. He was joined last school year by Officer Steve Cortez, who was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and lived for many years in El Paso prior to moving to Hobbs five years ago. Cortez completed police academy at Southeastern New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy at New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs. Prior to that, Cortez worked 8-1/2 years as a correctional officer prior to deciding to become a police officer. Cortez says he was assaulted and beaten up by inmates while working in prisons, which was an important reason why he decided to become a school resource officer. Cortez’s son works for the Hobbs Police Detention Center.
SROs are present on the Jal Elementary, junior high, and high school campus during school hours as well as during games and other school activities. During the summer, Jal School District’s SROs work patrol with the other Jal Police Department officers.
Cortez says his favorite part of being an SRO is the kids. He says enjoys interacting with the students at recess, playing tag with them. He says, “I consider them my kids.” He says, “Right now the reason why I wanted to become an SRO is because I wanted them not to be afraid of police officers. I want them to know we’re good, and we’re here to help you, to be a role model.” Cortez says about being an SRO, “I love my job. I love taking care of the children, giving advice, and being a role model.” He says his specialized training has prepared him for the potential threat of an active shooter. He appreciates the Jal community and the school district for their support of their SROs, adding that with the school’s excellent security system in place, the children are very safe.
Officer Flores agrees that the kids are “Why we are here. Everybody depends on us to look after their babies, whether they’re 18 years old or are in the pre-K. I try to make myself a better officer, do trainings. The better I am, the better I am to help out around here.” Flores started out as a patrol officer in Hobbs. Two months into his police career, he was hired as Jal School District’s first school resource officer. He says the district “treats us well here. Probably better than we deserve. I have never had any issues with the school. Working with everybody side by side, everything has been great. Never been any kind of friction with the staff or anything like that. The collaboration with the staff, principals, and law enforcement has been great.”
Flores mentioned the camera systems for the district even have the capability to where officers can instantly access the cameras on their smart phones if need be, so they have the ability to see what is happening on the other side of the campus. Not getting complacent is definitely something both SROs emphasize as important, especially when it comes to propping open external doors that should be kept closed, which still occasionally happens. Flores says, “I’m like harping about it all the time, but if you go back and look back at some of the shootings at schools, they just walked in because somebody propped open a door. I make it a big issue because it can be. I don’t want something like that to be the downfall of everything that we’re trying to do here just because somebody propped the door open with a rug or a rock. My motto is, I’m not going to trade convenience for safety. Just because it’s easy for you to leave it open or have it propped or something like that, I don’t care about that. Make the effort and know that whenever the door shuts behind you it’s going to be locked and that’s fine.”
“We’re trying to do our best to make sure that the people, staff, the environment and the property of Jal Public Schools is secure,” says Flores.