Port Chester native scores dream job as police officer
November 22, 2023 at 11:59 p.m.
Steven Alvarez began his path to becoming a Port Chester police officer once he graduated Port Chester High School. A member of the class of 2015, he accomplished his goal after eight years on Aug. 4, starting with a salary of about $65,000.
“I was going into WCC (Westchester Community College) as a liberal arts major because I didn’t know what I wanted to be,” he said. To help make the decision for his future, the Ellendale Avenue resident looked to his past.
“I started reminiscing on what I wanted to be as a kid,” he said. “I remembered playing video games as a kid and seeing how cops were portrayed as superheroes.” Additionally, he had inspiration from within his family.
“My uncle became a cop for the NYPD when I was in high school,” the 26-year-old said. “And he would tell me stories, and I thought that I wanted to do that.” His uncle, Michael Alvarez, is now a detective with the NYPD. While he had the goal once he graduated high school, he couldn’t pursue it immediately.
He had to wait two years to take the Westchester County Civil Service Exam, so he elected to study criminal justice in the meantime.
After attending WCC for two and a half years, one of his advisors recommended that he get his bachelor’s degree. Following that advice, he transferred to SUNY Albany, where he majored in homeland security, with a minor in criminal justice. It was during this time that he met a likeminded person who was on a similar path—Gary McCord Jr.
“We met through a mutual friend playing video games one day,” Alvarez said. “He said he was thinking about transferring to Albany, so I told him to visit.” McCord would go on to attend the school the next semester, and the two became roommates. “We always talked about wanting to become cops. We would talk about it all the time,” he said. Alvarez graduated in 2019 and would become a police officer before McCord. However, it wasn’t in Port Chester.
He joined the New Rochelle Police Department in December of 2021, and while it wasn’t his hometown, it was a second home for him. “My family grew up there when they came from Mexico and Honduras,” he said.
His father immigrated from Mexico and his mother from Honduras. He spent a lot of time visiting the city as a youth to see his family, so he felt proud to serve there as a police officer. “It was amazing, but my heart was always here in Port Chester,” Alvarez said. “I feel like I gave back to New Rochelle on the part of my parents, because they grew up there. I’m proud of what I did there.”
He stayed with the department for a year and seven months before transferring to Port Chester, finally accomplishing his goal.
“I’m always going to remember that day. It’s cemented in my head,” he recalled of the day he was hired. He describes joining the 61 other sworn officers in Port Chester as “A dream come true.” Alvarez wanted to serve the community he grew up in, as he credits it with who he has become. “Port Chester gave me so much growing up and I don’t want to let this town down.”
He’s doing everything he can to support the community, spending some of his days off to attend events with the Port Chester Police Department and volunteering where he can. “Policing is a job, but just being able to give back to the community is amazing,” he said. As a Port Chester native, he wants to support his hometown any way he can. He also uses his familiarity to his advantage on the job.
“I see a lot of people I know,” he said. “I’m a member of this community, so when I talk to people, we understand each other right away.” He’s a native Spanish speaker, which makes him part of the large Spanish-speaking population, and he finds that he provides a comfort to them. “We just get each other culturally,” he said.
He aspires to join the traffic division, but he’s comfortable with his current position. “I want to grow and develop as an officer,” he said. And he feels like he can do that at the Port Chester Police Department. “No one is afraid to help each other out over here. We all look out for each other.”
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