SAN BENITO — With years of training and experience working in law enforcement, Alex Zamora recently entered a realm of the career that he’s always had an interest in pursuing.
On Dec. 4, the San Benito CISD Police Department named Zamora its new K9 police officer.
As the department’s K9 police officer, Zamora will work alongside Colt, a Belgian Malinois police dog.
“We know he will continue to do a great job in his new role in our department,” a San Benito CISD Police Department Facebook post stated. “Congratulations K9 Officer Alex Zamora.”
Zamora said it was his love for dogs that sparked his interest in becoming a K9 officer.
However, he was never really able to have a pet before because of living in an apartment.
“I’ve always said that if I’m going to have a pet, I’m going to have my own home, my own yard so it can run around,” Zamora explained. “I finally bought my home a few months ago so now even more than ever it really helped out because our dog usually stayed here at the high school where he had been housed since he was a pup.”
Zamora began working with the school district as a security officer in Jan. 2001.
After being a security officer for nearly two years, he became a security officer supervisor.
Zamora said he worked alongside police officers and became good friends with a couple of them.
“I always wanted to be a police officer after I started here,” Zamora said. “The opportunities weren’t always available to me whether it was because of my daughter. She was born. I had to work extra hours, overtime, things like that. I couldn’t attend the academy or I didn’t have the money to pay for the academy.”
Zamora said finally, an opportunity presented itself last year.
“I said finally my time has come so I went to the academy,” Zamora said. “I worked full-time here and I went to the academy in the evening and on weekends.”
In February of this year, he became a police officer.
Zamora graduated and reserved for a while with Precinct 3 Constable Adrian Gonzalez.
“I was lucky enough that he had a spot for me so that I could at least get my license activated while I waited for a position here with the school district,” he explained.
Zamora said it’s been a long 20 years that had its ups and downs, but he’s finally gotten where he’s wanted to be for most of his time with the department.
“Once we get back to normal, I want to go out there and start being a positive role model for as many of the kids as I can help, guide and just let them know that if they really put their heart and mind to it, they can become anything they want,” he said.
Zamora expressed his gratitude to San Benito CISD Chief of Police Juan Sosa.
“He has always been a really good role model for me and has always inspired me to do better,” Zamora said. “He’s always told me that I would be a good officer and he’s always pushed me to do better.”
Zamora also said he is thankful for Brownsville ISD K9 officers because they played an integral part in his training.
“I trained with them for just over a month and I’ve learned a lot from them,” he said.
Zamora gave some words of advice to those interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement.
“It’s a tough time to be in law enforcement with everything that’s been going on in recent years, but I would suggest one thing — law enforcement, if you’re in it, you’re in it because you’re here to help people,” he said. “You’re here to treat them with respect and if you treat people with respect, they will respect you.”
