New law has been introduced to Big Sky. As our school says goodbye to our previous school resource officer (SRO), Officer David Hayden, we open our welcoming wings to Jeff Lloyd to be our SRO. This thirteen going on fourteen year-long officer is fresh, new, and ready to protect and serve.

The new transition has left people with mixed feelings about Officer Lloyd, “I don’t know him very well but he seems like he is a good cop, like he knows what he’s doing” says Big Sky Sophomore Saul Pellett.

And he definitely does know what he’s doing as he has been an officer of the law for thirteen going on fourteen years but even though he is a police officer he is still just an everyday person. Like all of us, in the beginning we are not one hundred percent sure about what we want to be or what profession that we are going to choose.

The same goes for Officer Lloyd, when Officer Lloyd was a teenager he never imagined himself as a police officer.

“I never wanted to be a police officer, my brother on the hand was older and that’s what he wanted to be,” said Officer Lloyd.

Even though Officer Lloyd never thought that he would eventually become a police officer does not mean he did not have expectation for a career of helping people himself. “I started out as a firefighter EMT, but I would be laid off at the end of every season. During the off season I would get a job as a security guard for a computer company, I was making much more money in this position”. Officer Lloyd said, “But over time people change, as do their jobs, sometime for the worse and sometimes for the better.

“I applied for a job in the fire department and unfortunately didn’t get the job so I applied for a job in the police department and got in. I was hired on as a police Officer in 2004 and I was very excited about it.” says Officer Lloyd.

But Officer Lloyd wasn’t just thrown into a uniform right out the gate. “Going through the police academy was a lot like be on a sports team in the sense that you bond with people,” Officer Lloyd adds.

This was just the start of Officer Lloyd’s career. Working the street and keeping them clean of crime, which he continued for most of his fourteen years as an officer, but eventually everyone needs a little change for any reason, which is one of the reasons he is our new SRO.

“I’ve experienced a lot of stuff in the street and I wanted experience mentorship.” “To be honest it was getting a little boring on the street and being an SRO was a chance to do something different.”

As an adult people find time to think and reflect on the past and the life choice they have made, for Officer Lloyd becoming a police Officer was in a way suggestive by his brother but becoming an SRO was all his own idea. “I used to get in to trouble as a kid a lot and it’s nice to give kids advice after getting in trouble.”

This man’s experience seems to be a perfect example of how people’s individual life experiences can shape the outcome of their personalities as well as the careers they go in to.