01940 Fall 2020 V2

20 | 01940
ALEX DOTO
an
officer’s
eye view
Alex Doto is the Lynnfield
School Resource Officer at
Lynnfield High School.
PHOTO: OLIVIA FALCIGNO
BY ALEX ROSS
Lynnfield native Alex Doto simply
wasn’t cut out for a 9-5 desk job. He
knew as early as high school that he
wanted to become a police officer.
Now, after nearly three and a
half years with the Lynnfield Police
Department, Doto works as the school
resource officer servicing all four public
schools in town.
The problem? Public school in the
middle of a pandemic doesn’t look
anything like it used to.
“Once school stopped being in session
[in March], my chief put me back on
patrol where I was before I became the
school resource officer,” Doto said. “And,
now, we’re just kind of waiting to see
what’s going to happen here in the next
couple weeks.”
Before the coronavirus forced schools
to close around the country, Doto’s
day-to-day duties as the resource officer
involved constant interaction with
children of all ages. Though his office is
located at the high school where he says
he spends about 85 percent of his time,
some of his favorite moments are with
the elementary-aged students.
“I think they get excited when I’m
around,” he said. “I’ll go there for lunch
sometimes — Huckleberry or Summer
Street — and they ask you a million
questions. Being around the younger kids
is fun. It’s different, but it’s fun.”
One of the key differences between
working with the younger students versus
the middle and high schoolers is the
terminology Doto uses in his discussions
on school safety. His favorite part of
the job, however, is the direct impact
he believes he can have on all of the
students, regardless of age.
“In my role as a school resource
officer, I have that ability to make an
impact with the kids and in their lives
and maybe change how they feel about
certain things because of their interaction
with me,” he said.
In today’s volatile social climate, Doto
is hyper aware of the negative perception
surrounding members of police forces
across the nation. And, while “a lot
of the interaction is negative,” he
said, his position as a school resource
officer “allows me to have that positive
interaction.”
Guided by both a sense of duty and
responsibility, he takes immense pride in
his job within the community, especially
having been born and raised in town.
After graduating from Lynnfield High in
2006, Doto spent a semester at Franklin
Pierce University in New Hampshire,
where he was on the soccer team.
The following semester, Doto transferred
to Salem State, where he later completed
his studies in criminal justice and interned
with the Woburn Police Department.
He went on to attend the MBTA Transit
Police Academy, and later worked for the
campus police at Wentworth Institute of
Technology in Boston.