After just a few weeks in his new role with Fillmore Unified School District as School Resource Officer (SRO) Deputy Leo Vazguez feels right at home during the busy and noisy breaks between class at Fillmore High School. Vazguez mentions, “It’s been busy… a lot of citations and a lot of paperwork.” So far he has visited every campus, although most of his time is spent at Fillmore High, Sierra High and the middle school responding to requests for assistance. When asked about how the kids respond to the SRO on campus he replied, “I’m sorry to say [some are] uneasy… and usually those are the ones that are causing problems. A lot of them are positive. I know a lot of the kids from patrol [and] from my neighborhood, a lot of contacts, good and bad. The ones I’ve had bad contacts [with] they usually walk away, the ones I’ve had good contacts with they come shake my hand.”
Vazguez grew up in the Lincoln Heights area of Los Angeles, and in Arcadia. After high school he served a tour in the military and then worked for ten years as a lab technician. For the past eight years he and his family have called Fillmore home. He has been with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department for 13 years. He enjoys collecting and riding motorcycles with friends and his family, even inspiring students in town to get good grades with the reward of going motorcycle riding. Responding to a question about why he has chosen to work with young people he comments “I just like working with the kids…I want to make sure they grow up to be normal law abiding citizens…hopefully I can help all the kids at all the schools… and make a little difference, hopefully I can help”

Vazguez also serves as the Lead Advisor for the Santa Clara Valley Explorers Program. The program is for young people ages 14 to 20 who live in the area patrolled by the Santa Clara Valley office of the Ventura County Sheriff. This includes Santa Paula, and portions of Upper Ojai, Fillmore, Piru and all the areas in between. “We really want to teach and show what we do as officers to the kids and they also do a lot of community service.” The program provides “everything except for their boots” which means that the cost to participants is very minimal. The program provides the Explorer uniform, and the participants do fundraising to cover any trips or activities that they want to do. Every year the participants attend an academy in Camarillo where they undergo physical and para-military training and attend classes pertaining to law enforcement like criminal law and traffic law. As part of the program participants must also accompany a deputy on patrol at least once a month. Some kids on patrol have helped deputies’ dust for fingerprints and fill out official “interview cards” by speaking with witnesses on scene. Vazguez described how the program recently provided security for the air show in Santa Paula and is available for other events in the cities the program serves. When providing security “[The kids] are not allowed to actively detain someone… they are another pair of eyes.”

Getting back to his work as SRO he said he has been “Very very busy… there is always something happening.” Vazguez also described the process for when a student is arrested. When he is called for any reason and a student has violated the law in some way, including fighting, being under the influence or truancy, that student will be arrested. The student will be taken to the station, booked, finger printed and it will be part of their juvenile record, if it is a violent offense or otherwise meets the criteria the child will be taken to Juvenile Hall in Oxnard. Vazguez explained “if they are not on probation, if they are not a danger to [anyone] juvenile hall is not going to take them… and that is most of the time.” If the criteria is not met the child is released to their parents, and the school administration applies the District policies to determine whether or not the process of suspension or expulsion is appropriate. Vazguez reiterated that even when a student is released to their parents “it is still an arrest.”

Vazguez wants residents to know “I’m here, it’s busy, it’s non stop… I want to be here, I want to help people if I can, just do my job.” If anyone wants to contact him they can call the school, or the Ventura County Sheriffs Station.