Officer Jeremy Flood, Community’s school resource officer, will retire from the Normal Police Department on Jan. 9 after more than 20 years with the department and begin a new role at Country Financial later this month.

“After 20 years of serving my community,” Flood said, “I had an opportunity to continue … just at a different location and in a different way.” 

Flood starts as Country Financial’s Corporate Security and Protective Intelligence Specialist, a role he described as recently created, on Jan. 19. 

Flood, who served as Community’s SRO since 2015, will be replaced by Officer Darien Bachman, a five-year veteran of the NPD.

The decision to retire midschool-year, Flood said, was driven by Country’s hiring timeline. 

After learning he was hired before winter break, the SRO opted to return to Community for a final week, a choice driven by his desire to say goodbye to students and staff in person.

“I didn’t want to leave without closure,” Flood said. “So I asked … for one more week in the building so I could say my goodbyes and get some hugs and some handshakes.”

During his time at Community, Flood said the role of school resource officers has shifted alongside changes in Illinois laws and expectations for the position.

“The laws related to schools and school resource officers have changed almost every year,” Flood said. “Our role used to be seen as just law enforcement.”

Today, Flood said, an SRO is “an informal counselor,” a “mentor,” another adult “to educate, to teach, to train.”

Relationships, Flood said, have been the most important part of his work at Community.

“I’ve had generations of families now—multiple kids, the big brother down to the baby sister all come through” Community in the last 11 years, Flood said. “That’s really cool.”

That’s what Flood said he’ll miss most—“All the kids. 100%.” 

Seeing those kids grow into adults, Flood said, is special. 

“I love when kids graduate and then they go off into the world. Eventually,” Flood said, they come back and visit, and I get to see that end result—that successful young adult.”

Flood described the response from staff as supportive, but emotional.

“Bittersweet is a word I’ve heard a lot,” Flood said.