After saving two lives in separate incidents last spring, Officer Jeremy Flood, Community’s School Resource Officer, was named Normal Police Department’s “Officer of the Year” in February.

Despite the honor, Flood credits his role at Community as the most rewarding part of his 20-year law enforcement career.

Flood, who has been with the Normal PD since 2005 and an SRO since 2015, said the award comes as a “huge honor;” receiving it after two decades of service “makes it even sweeter.”

“We have more than 80 officers, so to be nominated alone is an accomplishment,” Flood said. “I attribute this award to my work at the school—I don’t think I would have been nominated two years in a row without being an SRO.”

Though Flood attributes the honor to his work at Community, the award also recognized his quick action in two incidents just a month apart.

On April 19, 2024, Flood and another officer responded to a radio call about a man in cardiac arrest across the street from Community. Flood helped administer CPR and use an AED to revive the man, who left the scene with a pulse.

The man’s daughter, a former Community student, later recognized Flood—not just as an officer she had seen in the hallways, but as the man who saved her father’s life.

“When we met again a few weeks later, it was just hugs all around and very uplifting,” Flood said.

Exactly one month later, Flood was off duty at a local gym when a man collapsed mid-workout. Flood checked for a pulse—there was none.

He immediately began CPR while bystanders retrieved an AED, using two shocks to revive the man before paramedics arrived.

“In 19 years as an officer, I had never used CPR,” Flood said. “Then I used it twice in one month.”

Though the award recognized his life-saving actions, Flood said his day-to-day work as an SRO is what he values most.

Before taking on the role, he spent three years as a foot patrol officer in Uptown Normal, where he focused on building relationships with the community. That experience, he said, made him well-suited for his position at Community.

“Although the job is more than I thought it would be,” Flood said, “it’s the most rewarding and unique job at the police department.”

For the past decade, Flood has split his time between Community, Towanda Elementary and Grove Elementary, serving as a mentor, counselor and law enforcement officer.

“Most people’s worst days are the times they interact with the police officers in town,” Flood said, “so for police, that eats away at you after a while.”

“But in schools, I get to see students at their best—graduations, big football wins, even just everyday moments. I see them grow from clueless freshmen into young adults.”

The relationships he has built over the years, he said, help shift perspectives on law enforcement.

Flood always saw himself working in schools—just not in a police uniform, enrolling at Illinois State University to become a physical education teacher.

That changed after 9/11.

The terrorist attacks, he said, shifted his focus toward law enforcement, something that was in the back of his mind.

When he was younger, his father, a Chicago police officer in the 1970s, would tell stories about his time on the job.

“I’ve heard those stories 100 times,” Flood said.

Now, Flood is the one with stories to tell.