Jairo Sanchez didn’t develop up eager to be a police officer. For a lot of his childhood, police represented disruption — arriving throughout moments of disaster, instability or worry.
Sanchez spent components of his youth homeless in San Antonio, at occasions residing out of a van. Different occasions, he bounced between unstable housing and public housing complexes.
“I’m a progeny of SAHA,” Sanchez mentioned, referring to the San Antonio Housing Authority. “I used to be a SAHA and Part 8 child. I do know I grew up in a tough space. I turned a product of my neighborhood. I used to be within the barrio the place I didn’t just like the police. I hated the police.”
However life has a means of bending in sudden instructions. For Sanchez, the journey started with a sense that may ultimately land him the Mixed Legislation Enforcement Affiliation of Texas Officer of the Yr Award in 2025.
Throughout his senior yr in highschool, the warfare in Iraq and the next surge in navy recruitment started to unfold. A then 18-year-old Sanchez remembers seeing a lot of his academics recalled from the reserves into navy service. That have sparked a way of responsibility inside Sanchez.
“It wasn’t like, ‘I believe that is my duty,’” Sanchez mentioned. “However as soon as I began to know the place I got here from, and all the help that got here to my household — meals stamps, housing. It felt extra like, ‘That is my duty. That is my debt to offer again.’”
There was one other pull, too.
“I’d get to see the world,” he mentioned. “It’s a fairly neat factor to get out of the barrio.”
Sanchez joined the navy by means of the reserves, a choice that may take him far past his neighborhood — and ultimately carry him again dwelling to San Antonio.
He spent 15 years within the U.S. Military Reserves, working primarily in logistics. The position taught him planning, coordination and management; abilities he would carry into his civilian life as he bounced between careers in logistics and procurement, electrician unions and Division of Protection contracting for administrative work.
The navy supplied construction and stability for Sanchez, however it additionally got here with classes in loss. Through the years, he misplaced a number of associates to suicide — experiences that formed how he got here to know trauma and psychological well being.
Sanchez recalled one second particularly that modified the trajectory of his life.
“An in depth military buddy of mine despatched me a message. I believed it was a joke. You at all times suppose it’s not actual,” he mentioned. “I used to be capable of considerably get a location, and I used to be panicking at this level. I used to be panicking as a result of I had acquaintances that took their lives, however this individual was my battle buddy, they’re not supposed to do that. It’s important to be sturdy for me, you understand.”
Sanchez had a common location of a lodge the place the good friend was attempting to overdose, he felt misplaced and confused since there have been so many motels on this specific strip. So he dialed 911 and San Antonio Police confirmed up, his good friend is alive to at the present time due to their intervention he mentioned.
“That was when it hit me. It hit me once more, that feeling once I noticed my academics cry, ‘Oh, you’re human. You’re an individual too. You will have a duty’ earlier than it was with my academics after which I spotted that’s the identical factor for police,” he mentioned, referring to the moments that impressed him to serve within the navy. “ That seed simply saved rising in my head and on the time I used to be nonetheless within the utility course of for the Hearth Academy however that seed lingered.”
That single interplay made him reanalyze his relationship with the police and rerouted his profession as soon as once more.
“It received me pondering loads in regards to the occasions I had contact with police, and each time I did I spotted I used to be the aggressor. As a result of I grew up dangerous, I keep in mind officers yelling at me, however it was as a result of I used to be the one being silly,” Sanchez mentioned.
Reasonably than persevering with the method to affix the Hearth Division, Sanchez felt so moved he determined to use for the police academy, as soon as once more he felt he had a debt to repay.
“I instructed myself ‘I’m simply gonna see how far I can go.’ and that meant loads to me due to what occurred with my battle buddy,” he mentioned. “ I instructed myself, ‘All I gotta do is simply save one life and that’ll be my job, only one life.’ I didn’t know the way lengthy I might keep within the area however I might put my finest foot ahead, as a result of that’s how I used to be raised.”
It took him two tries to be chosen for SAPD, as soon as a occupation he hated, Sanchez mirrored on the change in his perspective.
“I used to be taught an incredible individual has nice concepts however it takes a fair better individual to have their thoughts modified,” he mentioned. “We gotta be taught from our experiences to get higher.”
After graduating from the academy, Sanchez was assigned to patrol, spending the early years of his profession between Southtown, Roosevelt and downtown — areas the place he says a lot of his calls revolved round psychological well being crises and homeless people — and the identical space the place he himself grew up.
Sanchez turned more and more taken with communication — what he describes as “verbal judo” — the power to learn a scenario, gradual it down and meet folks the place they’re emotionally earlier than attempting to resolve something legally.
“Reasonably than going the avenue of ‘Hey, you’re breaking the legislation,’ this and that, the place you may hit a wall the place an individual may say ‘Eff you, I don’t need to discuss to you,’” he mentioned. “I might ask extra like ‘Hey, I do know you, what’s occurring, how are you doing? How lengthy have you ever been homeless? What’s your aim to get off the streets? That simply offers a distinct view. Persons are extra cooperative and so they really feel like, ‘Oh, wow. This cop is knowing.’”
Over time, Sanchez started in search of a task that allowed him to lean into that strategy — one the place communication, follow-up and trust-building weren’t simply instruments, however the basis of the work. He discovered it within the San Antonio Concern Free Atmosphere, or SAFFE, unit.
Not like patrol officers, SAFFE officers are assigned to particular streets or neighborhoods and give attention to stopping crime earlier than it occurs by addressing quality-of-life points. Their work ranges from coordinating graffiti removing and dealing with metropolis departments to attending neighborhood conferences, partaking with youth and constructing relationships with residents and enterprise homeowners.
For Sanchez, the transition felt much less like a profession transfer and extra like a continuation, he’s assigned to the St. Mary’s Substation downtown. Sanchez continues to work in the identical common space the place he as soon as grew up.
“I get to return to the streets I used to stroll with my hoodlum associates and I notice, man, if I might have identified what I do know now, issues would have been completely different,” he mentioned. “It’s like a Cinderella story, I really feel achievement. I really feel blissful, even on my worst days ever, or the crappiest calls.”
The familiarity helps him join with individuals who could in any other case be cautious of police, particularly these experiencing homelessness or psychological well being crises.
As for the one life Sanchez aimed to avoid wasting when he began his journey, one man and his relationship with him embodies his beliefs within the energy of communication and endurance.
All through his profession Sanchez would constantly encounter a 300-pound, 6-foot-tall man who skilled persistent homelessness. The person would constantly tempo the streets whereas yelling and cussing right into a damaged cellphone. Sanchez started to work his “verbal Judo,” on a day the person was blocking site visitors on the streets whereas shouting non secular verses, Sanchez approached him to seek out out what was upsetting him.
The person was upset he had misplaced his bible, a scenario Sanchez rapidly remedied by giving him a bible that was donated to the police drive by a church. The person’s whole perspective shifted and he turned calm. Sanchez continued to develop a relationship with him as time handed till the person was arrested for breaking and getting into, whereas officers confirmed up anticipating a battle in opposition to the reportedly combative man, Sanchez acknowledged the person, subtle the scenario and walked him out speaking and joking.
Time handed with out seeing the person once more till Sanchez paid a go to to Haven for Hope, a nationally-recognized transformational shelter and providers campus, and encountered the person but once more.
“He appeared so completely different. He received off the narcotics. He received himself a brief job,” he mentioned. ”And, man, I used to be slightly tearful, I used to be like ‘that’s fairly cool.’ With the quantity of parents we discuss to in our brief careers, it’s at all times price it even when it’s only one individual we assist.”
However Sanchez’s profession has by no means been about only one individual. Earlier this yr, he and fellow SAFFE officer Frank Tapia helped set up a first-of-its-kind neighborhood 5K run and well being honest, an occasion constructed across the identical values that information his work on the road.
As a substitute of charging registration charges, individuals had been requested to donate faculty provides. The provides went on to college students within the San Antonio Unbiased Faculty District.
The 5K was hosted and logistically managed by SAPD officers, primarily SAFFE officers, whereas they had been on responsibility. Officers dealt with site visitors management, course operations and coordination with out counting on additional time or off-duty work. The occasion was designed to be self-sustaining, with SAPD’s brand entrance and middle.
When Sanchez and his colleagues appeared for related efforts, they couldn’t discover one other police division within the nation that had efficiently pulled off a completely free 5K and well being honest led by officers and constructed round donations as a substitute of charges.
Sanchez co-created the occasion with Tapia, designing the emblem, dealing with a lot of the planning and served as race director on the day of the occasion.
What stayed with him most, although, wasn’t the logistics or turnout. It was the response.
Sanchez mentioned some individuals instructed him they skilled for weeks simply to participate — not as a result of they had been runners, however as a result of they wished to be a part of what the occasion represented.
“That meant loads,” Sanchez mentioned.
The success of the occasion drew consideration throughout the division and past. The idea, execution and impression finally led to Sanchez receiving the 2025 Officer of the Yr award from the Mixed Legislation Enforcement Associations of Texas, the biggest police labor union within the state with greater than 28,000 members.
I actually did put my coronary heart and soul into it, and I used to be very lucky, and I didn’t count on an award,” he mentioned. “The thought is that, if we may do that right here, and one other metropolis does their very own, it can develop into a norm throughout america.”
For Sanchez, the award has prompted reflection greater than celebration. The work, he’s realized, isn’t at all times about dramatic moments or fast outcomes. Generally it’s about displaying folks a distinct model of policing than the one they count on.
Generally it’s about planting an concept that sticks lengthy after the interplay ends.
“Going again to why I turned a police officer, I wished to avoid wasting one life. Properly, what does that actually imply?” he mirrored. “Perhaps, inspiring folks is a part of that as properly.”
