ABOVE: Officer Shannon Bass of the Fairmont Police Department. Bass will be retiring, effective next week, after more than 25 years with the department.

FAIRMONT– Fairmont Police Officer Shannon Bass is retiring next week after spending more than 25 years serving the community. Most recently Bass has filled the role of School Resource Officer (SRO) at Fairmont High School.

Bass is local to the area as he grew up nearby in Worthington. He explained that he’s been around law enforcement his whole life as his father was a dispatcher at the police department there for almost 40 years.

Despite being around it, Bass didn’t have much interest in law enforcement, but he didn’t know what he wanted to do. Nonetheless, Bass followed a friend to Alexandria Technical and Community College.

“I did a ride along and during one of them we responded to a domestic and it ended up being one of my good friend’s mom who had been assaulted… she was beat so bad I didn’t recognize her and that steered me to getting into law enforcement. It was eye-opening,” Bass said.

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

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

Over more than two decades in the field, Bass has seen a number of changes, one of the biggest being the evolution of technology, among other changes.

“When I started with the county we didn’t have take home cars. Now the deputies have take home cars but we shared cars back then. If you got called out at night you had to come here (to the Law Enforcement Center), take a car and respond to wherever you were going,” Bass said.

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

At the time that he was starting out, he noted that hundreds of applicants would apply for one open position, but now departments all over the state are lucky if they get a handful of applications. Bass has seen many of his co-workers retire in recent years.

“When I started I was the youngest working for the county. Now I’m working with some younger than my children,” Bass said with a laugh.

For the last five years, Bass has mainly worked as SRO. He had been asked to serve as SRO in the past and admitted he would use the excuse that he wanted to wait until his children were through the school system. After the last one graduated, he found he had no reason not to so in In 2019 he took on the role of SRO and it ended up being a good fit.

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

The jobs of the SRO are many, but often times misunderstood.

“We’re not there to discipline the kids. Our job is to be a resource so that when the kids see us on the street, we’ve built a relationship and they know they can come to you,” he said.

As SRO Bass has worked not only with students, but also staff at both the elementary and high school, as well as with the parents of students.

In addition to changes with law enforcement, he also dealt with changes in the school

system. Bass started his role of SRO right before the Covid 19 pandemic hit.

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

He noted that through his years with the district heightened security measures at both school were also taken which resulted in doors being locked throughout the school day. In his eyes it was a very positive change.

While his career in law enforcement has spanned many years, it seems that the last few serving as SRO were most impactful for Bass.

“After five years I’ve felt like most of the kids have accepted me as part of the backdrop. They didn’t see me as an officer. I was just Bass.”

He said he will miss seeing the students and acknowledged that some of them don’t have a support system to speak of so he enjoyed being able to listen to their problems and offer any advice.

“I was shocked by how much I enjoyed it. Maybe it’s because I’m a little kid at heart,” Bass said with a laugh. On a serious note, Bass became a little emotional and said it would be hard for him to adjust to leaving his role as SRO.

“I’ve had some personal success stories of kids who struggled when I first got out there and now they’re graduating. I’ve told them, just because you’ve gotten a citation doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. The goal was always to try to make a difference in someone,” Bass said.

In addition to serving as SRO, Bass was an original member of the department’s High Risk Energy and Arrest Team (HEAT). He also worked on crime prevention with the city.

Not only is it hard for him to leave behind the students he’s worked with, but his coworkers in the department.

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

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

This summer Bass plans to do some traveling with his family and then look for a part-time job to help keep him busy. He noted that the job of a law enforcement officer is hard on the body and mind in many ways.

“It will be a career change. I’ll take what I’ve learned here and go on,” Bass said.

All in all Bass is satisfied with his career and said his goal was always to be the same whether he was in uniform or out of uniform. And he hopes to have had a positive impact on the people he’s worked with as much as they have had on him.

“I’ve met people from all different walks of life and at the school I’ve worked with all ages from the elementary where I got high fives and hugs to the high schoolers who who will give you a hard time but you can give it right back. I’ve learned so much from them,” Bass said.