Bass ends career in police | News, Sports, Jobs

ABOVE: Officer Shannon Bass of the Fairmont Police Department. Bass will retire next week after more than 25 years with the force.

FAIRMONT – Fairmont Police Officer Shannon Bass is retiring next week after serving the community for more than 25 years. Most recently, Bass served as a School Resource Officer (SRO) at Fairmont High School.

Bass is from the area, having grown up nearby in Worthington. He explained that he has been involved with law enforcement his entire life, as his father was a dispatcher with the local police department for nearly 40 years.

Although Bass was involved in police work, he wasn’t particularly interested in it, but he didn’t know what he wanted to do. Nevertheless, Bass followed a friend to Alexandria Technical and Community College.

“I was there and on one of them we were called out to break up a domestic dispute. It ended up being the mother of one of my good friends who had been attacked… she was beaten so badly I didn’t recognise her and that made me want to join the police. That was a revelation.” said Bass.

After graduating, Bass began his career in law enforcement at the Nobles County Jail in 1996. He was then hired as a deputy with the Martin County Sheriff’s Office in 1997.

“I worked as a deputy sheriff for four years and joined the Fairmont Police Department in 2001,” said Bass.

In his more than 20 years in the field, Bass has seen many changes, one of the biggest being the advancement of technology.

“When I started with the county, we didn’t have ride-share cars. Now officers have ride-share cars, but back then we shared cars. If you were called at night, you had to come here (to the Law Enforcement Center), get a car and drive to where you were going.” said Bass.

He said the cars had radio and radar, but no cell phones unless someone had their own cell phone to use.

When he first started, he found that hundreds of applicants applied for an open position, but today departments across the state are lucky if they receive a handful of applications. Bass has seen many of his colleagues retire in recent years.

“When I started, I was the youngest person working for the county. Now I work with some who are younger than my children.” said Bass, laughing.

For the past five years, Bass has worked primarily as an SRO. He has been asked to serve as an SRO in the past and admitted he used the excuse that he wanted to wait until his children graduated from the school system. After the last child graduated, he saw no reason not to, so he took on the SRO role in 2019 and it turned out to be a good fit.

“It turned out really well. It was one of the better decisions I made.” said Bass.

The tasks of the SRO are diverse but are often misunderstood.

“We are not there to discipline the children. Our job is to be a point of contact so that when the children see us on the street, they know that we have built a relationship and that they can come to you.” he said.

As an SRO, Bass has worked not only with students, but also with elementary and high school staff, as well as students’ parents.

In addition to the changes in the police service, he also looked at the changes in schools

System. Bass began his role as SRO shortly before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We were in school and then out of school again and the masks were interesting. It was so nice to see the children’s faces again so I knew if they were having a good day or a bad day.” said Bass.

He noted that during his years with the district, both schools also implemented increased security measures, resulting in the doors remaining locked throughout the school day. In his eyes, this was a very positive change.

Although he has worked in the police force for many years, the last few years of his work as an SRO seem to have been the most formative for Bass.

“After five years, I felt like most of the kids accepted me as part of the scenery. They didn’t see me as an officer. I was just bass.”

He said he would miss the students, acknowledging that some of them did not have a significant support system, so he enjoyed listening to their problems and offering them advice.

“I was surprised at how much fun I had. Maybe it’s because I’m still a little kid at heart.” Bass said, laughing. In all seriousness, Bass got a little emotional and said he was having a hard time adjusting to leaving his role as SRO.

“I’ve heard some personal success stories from kids who struggled at the beginning and are now graduating. I’ve told them that just because you got a citation doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a bad person. The goal was always to try to make a difference to someone.” said Bass.

In addition to his work as an SRO, Bass was a founding member of the department’s High Risk Energy and Arrest Team (HEAT) and worked on crime prevention for the city.

He finds it difficult to leave behind not only the students he worked with, but also his colleagues in the department.

“There are so many good people here. It’s a family. You trust these people.” said Bass.

Fairmont Police Chief Mike Hunter said: “We are grateful for all of Officer Bass’ years of service and the positive impact he has had on the community and the students and staff as an SRO. We at the Fairmont Police Department wish him the best.”

This summer, Bass plans to travel with his family and then find a part-time job to keep himself busy. He noted that being a police officer is physically and mentally demanding in many ways.

“It will be a career change. I will use what I have learned here and move on,” said Bass.

Overall, Bass is happy with his career and said his goal was to always be the same whether he was in uniform or not, and he hopes he had as much of a positive impact on the people he worked with as they had on him.

“I’ve met people from all walks of life and in school I’ve worked with all age groups, from elementary school where I got high fives and hugs, to high school students who give you a hard time but you can also get back at them. I’ve learned so much from them,” said Bass.

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