It’s February 4th, 2021, and New Mexico Highway Patrolman Darian Jarrett pulls over a white Chevrolet pickup truck on I-10, driven by Omar Cueva, who had outstanding felony warrants at the time. Tragically, Patrolman Jarrett was not aware of these warrants when he was approaching Cueva’s passenger side window. After a brief conversation, Patrolman Jarrett begins to walk back to his patrol vehicle. This is when Cueva got out of the truck, raised his AR-15 over his truck bed, and opened fire on Patrolman Jarrett, who was struck by the gunfire and collapsed. Cueva then walked over to where Patrolman Jarrett was lying, and delivered one final execution style shot at point blank range. Cueva then fled the scene in his truck, leaving Patrolman Jarrett to die on the side of the highway. Patrolman Jarrett’s body was discovered a few minutes later, and life saving measures were attempted, but despite paramedics’ best efforts, Patrolman Jarrett died at the scene. 

Officers radioed the description of Cueva’s truck and its plates to surrounding units, resulting in the truck being located by police soon after. This time, Cueva refused to pull over, and a high speed chase ensued. About 40 minutes into the pursuit, officers managed to perform a PIT maneuver on Cueva’s truck, putting it out of action. With no means of escape left, Cueva stepped out of his vehicle and began shooting at officers, striking Officer Adrian De La Garza in the arm, causing him to fall backwards. Cueva then fled back behind his truck, presumably to reload. Officer De La Garza immediately got back up, ran towards the back of the truck, and emptied his magazine into Cueva, finally bringing an end to a tragic ordeal that never should’ve happened in the first place. Cueva later succumbed to his wounds, and Officer De La Garza made a full recovery. Patrolman Darian Jarrett is survived by his wife and four children, and will be forever remembered and missed by all who knew him. 

         Patrolman Jarrett is one out of hundreds of law enforcement members killed in the line of duty in the past ten years, not to mention the thousands more that have been wounded. Public perception of law enforcement hit an all time low during the summer of 2020, after the unjustified murder of George Floyd by former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin on May 25th of that year. Floyd’s death sparked violent riots and civil unrest in Minneapolis and across the country, and it further fueled hatred for law enforcement. Officers all over the U.S. who had nothing to do with Floyd’s death were spat on, cussed at, assaulted, stabbed, shot at, and murdered. This mistrust also led to a nationwide shortage of police officers, as thousands of officers quit after it became clear that their leadership did not have their backs and departments struggled to bring in new applicants. This led to higher crime rates, as departments were not well staffed enough to answer the higher volume of calls efficiently. 

Almost four years later, public perception of law enforcement has been growing more positive, but there are still some anti-police strongholds. Deputy Chris Byrum, who has been with the Union County Sheriff’s Office (UCSO) for 19 years, knows a lot about the public’s views on law enforcement nationwide and also here in Union  County. “In Union County, I think the general perception of law enforcement is in a positive manner, the Sheriff’s Office as well as the other municipalities… I think that we all do a very good job of being very transparent with situations that happen within the county.” 

Social media appears to be one of the main contributing factors to the mistrust of law enforcement. “If there’s a law enforcement interaction with someone in the public… if that [interaction] goes south… people who may be walking around on the sidewalks will pull out their cell phones and start recording after the situation has already turned bad versus… seeing the positive side of it first before it turned negative… people are getting a ten second snippet of what happened only after it turned south.” The message is clear: don’t immediately judge law enforcement based on a ten second video, or by only reading a headline. Do your research, collect all of the facts, and once you know exactly what took place before and after the video or headline, then form your opinion. 

          Here in Union County, the Sheriff’s Office is always trying its best to be active and transparent within the community, and it has largely succeeded in this goal. Deputy Byrum remarked, “We are human just like you, we are taxpayers just like you… we live within the communities that you live in… the more that we open up a line of communication between each other as human beings, first and foremost, and then citizen to law enforcement officer secondly, that’s when you can start building those relationships, that’s when you might change the outlook of what somebody has on law enforcement.” Deputy Byrum further spoke about how the UCSO is working to improve the public’s relationship with law enforcement, such as programs where the community may interact with their local law enforcement, and glimpse into the world of policing. 

          Many people have had negative experiences with law enforcement, and many more have had positive experiences, but one takeaway is clear. Police officers are people, just like us. In our modern society, it is all too easy to dehumanize law enforcement, and to widen the gap between citizens and police. 

          The UCSO, along with thousands of other agencies across the country, are working to close this gap, and to become closer to the communities they are policing.

Deputy Byrum added: “I challenge people all the time to go join the Citizens Academy at your local PD, or go join the Explorers program at your local PD, or do a ride along with your local PD. Or if that doesn’t work, maybe consider going into law enforcement so you can get a first hand view of what we actually have to deal with.”