NBPD Spotlight — S1 E6: “I knew that it was a department that I would be proud to serve, because they were there for me when I needed it most.”

“Officer Anthony Lopes. I’ve been with New Bedford since May of this year, and I was born and raised in New Bedford.”

“Growing up in New Bedford wasn’t bad at all as me as a kid growing up. I grew up in a household, Portuguese and Brazilian, so it was already crazy in general. But it was one of those that my parents always worked. My mother always worked 70 to 80 hours a week…I was basically born and raised by my grandparents.”

“Before I was a police officer, I used to work for the city of New Bedford already as a parking enforcement officer, so I was doing that for about 6 and a half years. During those 6 years, I was issuing tickets throughout across the city of New Bedford. So during that time was when a lot of officers would come up to me and just be like, “hey, come join the team, be part of the team, take the test, take the test,” and I would kinda push it off a little bit. But then as I got older because I started with the city when I was 20, as I got older at that point, I was like, you know what? I think it’s time for me to make a switch.”

“In 2017, I’m sorry, 2016, my cousin on the day before 4th of July was shot and killed by her father. So once that happened, the chief at the time ended up talking to us at the hospital. And just to see him and the detectives that worked on the case, to see how they were always checking in on us, with the family and just giving condolences, and once the vigil and the wake happened, the mayor showed up, and police officers showed up to pay respects. I knew that it was a department that I would be proud to serve because they were there for me when I needed it most. Even when I wasn’t expecting them to show up, this department did. So I’m very grateful for that, and that’s also kind of one of the reasons why I became a police officer.”

 

 

“So it all comes down to my first and only FTO, Andy Pereira. He is one hell of a guy, stand up guy. He has an awesome approach of talking to people. He respects everyone. He has a really good rapport with people. He just knows how to talk with people, gets along with people. He has a really good approach, and he knows his stuff.”

“Being a police officer now, one thing that I’ve noticed just over the few months is trying to talk to people in a way that they don’t feel disrespected, but also just trying to overcome a lot of people that has a bad approach against us right off the bat. Not every cop is a bad cop. Not every police officer has an attitude with people. There’s a lot of great police officers. I work with a bunch in the north end. Almost every guy that’s on our shift, not almost — every guy on our shift, has a good approach with everyone, knows how to talk to people, tries to diffuse situations right off the bat.”

“Being able to see like a kid kinda look up to you is one of those things that I never thought would ever happen. Me as a kid, I was always a jokester. I still am. I was always, like, a clown in school. So for me, like, seeing a little kid look up to me, or if I’m driving around, kids will wave at me — I’ll stop. I’ll try to give them a high five here and there. Or if I go to grab lunch somewhere, I see a kid, try to give them a knuckle bump, or I try to give them lunch here and there, like, if I can or give them a soda, just so that way they have, like, a good interaction with police, especially nowadays a lot of the younger generation, even though I’m still young myself, but kids that are younger than me, they automatically wanna have a bad stereotype against cops. And like I said, not all of us are like that. So for me, if I can just even just spend 30 seconds with 1 kid just asking them how school is or what’s his favorite video game, or did you see the Celtics last night, or just try to have, like, an interaction where they can at least say, like, hey. Alright. That cop like, that’s a good cop, like, that’s a cool cop.”

“Being a police officer in New Bedford, it’s been an honor, and it still is. Every day is something new. You deal with a very cultural place as far as, like, different nationalities, different types of people, keeps your head on a swivel. It is pretty cool because when I was in school, I used to see the SROs for every school that I went to, and I saw how cool they were with kids, and cool with me in general. And now, I never thought I was gonna be a police officer. I just didn’t think that I would be able to. I just thought it was gonna be too hard, too complicated, and everything like that. And now to see myself now in a cruiser driving around responding to calls, and trying to help people out, it’s pretty cool. And, you know, getting recognized, like, everywhere you go. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. But, I mean, overall, it’s been pretty cool because I still live in the area, so it’s awesome being able to help everyone from where you grew up.”