Page 20 - June2020 FOP Magazine

Portraits by Peter Bucks
Tributes to officers from the CPD Officer, Lodge 7 member and renowned artist
‘I’m a police officer first’
n BY KAREN STAHL
Fresh out of the army in 1998, Manuel Martinez was a wide-eyed 22-year-old just looking for what he wanted to do next. Being the ultimate caretaker is his most defin- itive personality trait, and he knew that holding down an office job would be too repetitive — he craved daily adventures and excitement.
So the young dreamer ap- plied to nursing school and decided to devote his life to saving others. But when a Chicago Police Department recruiter visited one of his general education courses, Martinez immediately saw his life of service veer away from scrubs and fit perfectly into a CPD uniform.
“I was like, ‘I gotta do something that’s different ev- ery day,’” Martinez recalled. “So I signed up, and I put the nursing thing on hold. I’m a police officer first.”
Martinez started in 2001 and found himself in the 12th District working on the Tactical Team. But after six years of creating a life in his dream job, he felt an impossible-to-ignore nagging to go back and finish nursing school while planning what his career would look like post-policing.
With fiery determination, a three-month-old son, full-time job demands and the desire to set a positive example all tucked into his back pocket, Martinez enrolled in a part-time nursing program at Saint Xavier University in 2007.
“I’m a glutton for punishment when it comes to schooling,” he joked. “I was just doing it for my kid, like if ‘I can do this, we can get out of the city and get to a better place.’ I didn’t want my kids kind of growing up in that environment.”
Sleepless nights of caring for a newborn while completing general education classes and going to work came to a head when Martinez finally got into the nursing school and was told he’d have to complete the program as a full-time student.
“I was like, ‘Well, now I’m really not going to get any sleep,’” the officer shared. “It was very hectic. But I would rather have options that if I want to leave at 20 years, retire and go some- where else, I can do it. With everything, it took me five years to
20 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JUNE 2020
finish.”
He worked Tactical for
three more years after nurs- ing school. After 14 years with that team, Martinez decided it was time to shake things up and moved to the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS) office for a year before ultimately land- ing on midnights and work- ing as a LEMART instructor.
No matter where he’s as- signed on the job, the ul- timate caretaker’s nursing background constantly comes into play — partic- ularly now, while masking up and serving on the front- lines against the pandemic. His mind has been working overtime thinking about the unknown long-term effects of the virus.
“[Policing and nursing] are very similar,” Martinez said. “You have to use a lot of criti- cal thinking and keep a stan- dard of asking with patients, like, ‘Why is this happening?’
And that’s kind of the same with police work, with, ‘Well, what’s going on?’ A lot of the steps of question- ing and getting to the final goal are similar.”
Now a father to two sons who are 7 and 11 years old, Martinez sees the fruits of his hard work in schooling and policing every day. He knows that no matter what career comes after the CPD — whether that’s working in a pediatric unit or helping deaf children through his knowledge of Ameri- can Sign Language (ASL) — he’ll always serve as an example to his boys that dreams can be achieved with pure grit and deter-
mination.
“I try and teach them the value of hard work,” Martinez said.
“It’s fun just goofing around with them — you know, my matu- rity level isn’t much higher than theirs — and helping them find their way in the world.”
Deep down, Martinez holds onto a part of that 22-year-old dreamer constantly on the hunt for what he wants to do next. But he knows that whatever branch of service he finds himself in, he’ll always be satisfying his dream of helping others.
“I want to teach my kids that if you want something, don’t ex- pect it,” Martinez said. “You go out there, and you work hard for it.”
MANUEL MARTINEZ
Star #4380