Behind the badge beats a heart of gold
Sandoval deputy wins high praise for service
Think law enforcement and you might conjure up the stern-faced individual asking for a license the time you were pulled over, or the strictly-business officers waving you past the scene of an accident.
But there’s another side to the law enforcement community that often gets overlooked: the compassion many who wear the badge have for the people they encounter on their job.
Take the case of one Sandoval County Sheriff’s deputy. The act of kindness he extended to someone he had to arrest might have helped turn a life around.
Deputy Jacob Trujillo was on duty several months ago when he got a call about a car on the side of the road on the outskirts of Bernalillo, where a woman was waving her arms in distress.
“When I was dispatched out there, I noticed the woman was crying and she told me her car had broken down and needed help,” Trujillo said. “I looked inside the car and saw an orange needle cap and little signs that this person may be a drug user.”
After questioning the woman and her boyfriend, Trujillo found out there was a loaded, uncapped heroin needle under the driver’s seat, he said.
He explained to her that she was going to be placed in custody and charged with possession of heroin.
“I am one of those guys who likes to talk to people. I don’t just like to say, ‘Yeah, you’re getting charged. Get in the car,’” Trujillo said. “Come to find out, they had just gotten back from the doctor to find out she was pregnant. We had a little heart-toheart all the way down to the jail.”
Trujillo told the woman she needed to make better decisions with her life now that she was going
to be a mother, he said.
When she went to court, Trujillo told the district attorney the woman was trying to get her life in order to try and help her, he said.
“I tried to stay in touch with her ever since that day,” Trujillo said. “Even after the arrest, we had a pretty good relationship just in passing.”
Having that type of relationship is almost taboo, he said, because most people don’t think they could ever trust a person who arrested them again.
Trujillo said after he found out that the woman had her baby and it was completely healthy, he was proud of the woman he helped.
“I felt compelled to go to Walmart, with the assistance of other deputies, and got a bunch of stuff, and that night just drove by her place and dropped it off,” Trujillo said.
During a recent ride-along, Trujillo told the Observer his awareness for community came from his teamwork training at the academy. He was honored as valedictorian for his sheriff’s training class of 2014 before entering the SCSO after graduation.
“It doesn’t matter what color of uniform you wear, it can be a blue uniform or tan uniform, they’re your brothers and sisters no matter what,” Trujillo said. “This conveys over to the general public, too, because we don’t like seeing anybody get hurt.” His work didn’t go unnoticed. Trujillo received recognition from KOB-TV’s Eyewitness News, appearing on its Pay It 4ward segment holding the woman’s baby.
The Sandoval County Commission also recognized Trujillo at its meeting earlier this month.
County Commissioner Glenn Walters said publicly thanking deputies for a job well done is always a good thing.
“His (Trujillo’s) actions were about serving the community, by both the arrest and then him and his partners’ follow up,” Walters said.
Honoring Trujillo was initiated by Sandoval County Manager Phil Rios with the support of the entire commission, he said.
“Locally, our deputies have truly served our community and the community is very supportive of their efforts,” Walters said. “The outpouring of community support in recent years for our local law enforcement officers that made the ultimate sacrifice by their death while on duty demonstrates the real local feelings about, and appreciation for, our local law enforcement officers.”
Trujillo said he’s not a hero because he feels there are many officers who have done more in the line of duty.
“There’s so many people out there that have done things just like this and have done more,” Trujillo said. “There are those who have risked their lives in this profession and have died in this profession … those are the heroes, those are the ones that paid the ultimate sacrifice.”