SAPD's Mr. Sunshine

Albert Alvarez is a 46-year-old male who stopped counting at 35. “Age isn’t a number,” he said, “it’s how you feel in your mind. And for me I feel like I stopped at 35 as far as the physicality goes.”

At age 35, Alvarez was still in the army, nearing the end of a 21-year military career that would conclude in border city El Paso. Over 21 years, Alvarez had climbed in rank to E-7, holding the position of Sergeant First Class. The career took him all over Europe and the Middle East, with stops in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Germany, France, England and Korea, but for Alvarez there was only one place to call home.

“I lived in El Paso for the last portion of my military career and El Paso is a six-hour drive,” he said. “I would get over here maybe once a quarter, if even that. I said, ‘you know what, my mom’s getting older’ I wanted her to see the kids a lot more, so I decided specifically to move home just for my mother, so she could spend time with the kids.”

Born in Ballinger but raised in San Angelo, Alvarez is Texan through and through. While the military wasn’t his first choice of careers growing up, at 20 he was seeking some direction and chose to enlist, a choice that helped define the direction he’d take for the rest of his professional life.

“At 20 years old, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do,” he said. “I didn’t want to go to college—not at that point—I was still living at home—I got tired of living at home—and at 20 years I said, ‘This is it. I’ve got to do something’. I wanted to sprout my own wings and I joined the army.

“My mom said when I was younger—I’m sure every kid says when they’re younger—that I wanted to be a police officer, and I actually became one,” he continued. “I wanted to be a DPS officer, but things didn’t work out that way. I think it was the uniform. I think they’ve got a real sharp duty uniform.“

After retiring from the military, Alvarez stayed in El Paso for a while before returning to San Angelo with his wife and children to be nearer to his family. Once here, he applied to and was hired as a police officer, a job he’s held for the past two years.

Alvarez says there are a lot of parallels between his job as a peace officer and his duties in the military; correspondence that has helped him successfully respond to situations on a local level.

“In the army I did what I’m doing now, but I did it on a global level and now I’m doing it here on a local level,” he said. “I’m getting to know the people in all of San Angelo instead of different people in other countries.”

Citing a wide range of experience of both good and bad over the years, Alvarez says his number one asset as an officer as his ability to diffuse hostile situations by means of patience and positive disposition.

“[Being a peace officer means] that I am someone that children, young adults, would want to emulate,” he said. “I don’t go in aggressive. I have a lot of patience. Sometimes it’s easier to talk somebody you do not know, that has absolutely no opinion of anything that you’re going to say other than offer you additional advice.

That’s why I can take that volatile situation and get everybody’s levels down without any additional paperwork.”

Maintaining a positive disposition is not difficult, Alvarez said, despite the negativity that often comes with the job. The morning shift patrol officer is known as Mr. Sunshine or Mr. Smiley, due to how cheery he is on a daily basis.

“Every morning I come in I have a smile on my face,” he said, characteristically smiling. “It doesn’t matter what the day before was, what happened, I’m humming, I’m singing ‘zippity-do-da’, I’m singing ‘I’ve Got Sunshine on a Cloudy Day’, I am always in a good mood and it doesn’t matter what.”

Dealing with perps doesn’t get him down, he said, because, “They made that decision (to break the law). I don’t make the rules…I just enforce the rules.”

When he’s not on patrol, Albert Alvarez spends his time hunting, fishing and teaching his sons the dos and don’ts of weapons and guns. “I’m definitely a second amendment advocate,” he said. His designs for the future haven’t yet been hashed out career-wise, but the family man did confirm his ambitions as far as location.

“My mom’s 80, but I tell her she’s got another 20. I don’t plan on going anywhere,” he said.