Page 112 - South Mississippi Living - July, 2018

FIRST RESPONDERS serve & protect
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A FIRST RESPONDER:
Police OfTficers
story by Lynn Lofton photos by Neil Ladner
here’s pride in being a police officer and knowing you’re serving the community. These valuable first responders are
sworn to serve and protect. Sgt. Daniel Castillo, a 15-year veteran with the Gulfport Police Department, is a good example of the dedication these men and women exhibit every day.
Gulfport Police Sgt. Daniel Castillo uses his patrol car’s computer to search for information about a crime suspect.
Before he arrives at his station, he makes sure his body camera and bullet-proof vest are in place. The day begins in the briefing room where information from the prior shift is shared. “We get a re-cap and find out if there’s anything we need to follow up on,” he says. “Plus,
we look at anything that comes in through email. We may have to put fuel in our patrol car, and then we start meandering around the city.”
This is meandering with a purpose as police visibility is important. “There’s no certain path and no two days are ever the same,” Castillo said. “I think that’s why police officers do it. We call ourselves problem solvers; we don’t know what’s going to happen on a given day.”
Although Castillo is a supervisor in the Orange Grove area, when he’s on patrol, he does it all. On
a hot June morning he responded to an assault call and — thanks to the laptop computer in his car — checked to see if the suspect has a police record. Next, he responded to a call about shoplifting at Home Depot. “The majority of our crimes are petty theft, and that it’s usually someone supporting a habit,” he said.
Technology is a great aid for law
enforcement. Incidents requesting the police come through from dispatch on the computers in patrol cars. Officers in the area respond but any officer near the location can self assign and assist. “The technology we have now is great,” Castillo said. “I remember when reports were handwritten.”
Castillo points out that police officers are constantly being scrutinized. “Please remember that videos you see involving officers don’t tell the whole story; you don’t see what happened before someone filmed a video.”
He added that policemen sometimes suffer from a form of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) because of events they face. “We see some nasty, bad stuff, and some nights I go home and shed
a tear,” he said. “If an officer tells you he’s never scared, he’s lying.”
Before joining law enforcement, Castillo was a medic in the Air Force. He grew up in New Mexico and went to college in Missouri where he met his wife, Casey, who’s from the Gulf Coast. She wasn’t his wife then, but the two re-connected when he was stationed in Biloxi. Now he and Casey, a registered nurse, have two children and intend to be permanent Gulfport residents.
Sgt. Castillo prepares to patrol his area.
112 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • July 2018
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