While the prospect of visiting the police station would instill fear in most, for junior Alex Torres, it brings up good memories.
“When I was really young, I got to take all of my friends to the police station as a birthday party,” Torres said.
Torres, whose father is an officer in the San Francisco Police Department, appreciates more than the birthday party opportunities that having a parent on the force offers.
“[I like] hearing his stories and about what he experiences,” Torres said. “Hopefully one day when I’m a little older, I’ll get to go on a ride-along and that’d be fun.”
Having a parent on the force allows Torres to understand political issues from a different perspective.
“I think that you can research something as much as you want, but if you don’t experience it you won’t truly understand it,” Torres said. “So sometimes the things [my dad] says with regards to politics gives me light on what I think because I haven’t experienced things like he has.”
Junior Mitchell Yee’s father has served on the SFPD for 18 years. Yee also appreciates the wisdom that can be gained from having a parent on the force.
“The most unique experience [I get from my father] would have to be the exposure to what’s really out there,” Yee said. “If you were to talk to your parent who serves in law enforcement, you may see how life is maybe not how it seems …. When my father did work the streets as a police officer he did see a lot of different things. With that experience, when I got older, he started warning me about things to look out for and how to be safe.”
Torres’s father currently serves an administrative role in SFPD Internal Affairs Division, and Yee’s father provides security at SFO. However, both used to serve on the streets, which was a source of stress for their children.
“It was very nerve-wracking,” Yee said. “I understood that a lot of stuff happened on the streets … I would be overjoyed to see my dad come home as a kid.”
Torres also worried about his father when he worked in street patrol.
“He works in San Francisco and it’s such an unpredictable environment,” Torres said. “I used to worry that something would happen, but God willing it hasn’t and it won’t.”
However, for Yee, the hardest part was not the danger, but rather the hours. When Yee was in elementary school, his dad would drop him off at school in the morning and then come home around 8 p.m. before Yee went to bed.
“As a kid I didn’t get to see him very often,” Yee said. “He gave me a lot of time on the weekends, but during the week, he was devoted to his job … I would have liked to have my father around more, even though I understand he’s doing the right thing.”
The physical risk and spending time with family are not the only concerns police need to deal with. Yee and Torres believe that negative perceptions of police have been a problem for their fathers. A lack of respect from the public was one of the factors why Torres’s dad moved to Internal Affairs.
“He tells me a story of how he saw someone — an African American man — put his wallet on the back of his car as he was loading groceries but he forgot to pick it back up when he drove off so it fell on the floor.” Torres said. “My dad picked it up, turned on his siren, pulled him over and was about to give him his wallet back. The man rolls down the window and proceeds to start yelling about how he didn’t do anything wrong and that he’s being targeted because of his race. My dad then said ‘you dropped your wallet’ and walked away.”
Torres hopes that people can keep an open mind about the work that people like his father does.
“In the videos that are now so popular of police brutality, I agree those policemen are horrible for what they did, but America cannot and should not let a few officers define thousands,” he said. “There are still a lot of good policemen out there that I have met.”
More than 900,000 law enforcement officers currently serve in the country according to the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Yee explains his personal view of their work.
“It’s not the most flattering job, but I understand that it’s a job that must be done,” Yee said, “and I understand that it’s also a very hard and tedious job … they do it for the people around them.”
Although Torres and Yee face challenges from their fathers being in the police force, they continue to respect the profession.
“When I go to the city, not the most favorable places, like the Tenderloin, I feel reassurance and safety,” Yee said.
He knows that there are people like his father keeping him safe.
