Prior to coming to Trinity, Security Director Anthony Maldonado worked in the police department for a grand total of 21 years. During that time, he held various roles, from being a property detective to working in the Chicago gang unit and even working as a crisis negotiator. Along with his experience in the police, he has a bachelor’s in criminal justice and a master’s in conflict and crisis negotiations.
Maldonado was inspired to pursue law enforcement by his family members that worked within the police force.
“I have a lot of relatives that are older, and I grew up seeing them helping people,” Maldonado said.
Maldonado’s craziest story happened in Orlando while he was part of the gang unit. During a gang operation, he and his team busted a meetup of a variety of gangs whose members had various illegal weapons and contraband. Though the bust was successful, there were too many arrested to fit them all in a squad car, so they had to improvise.
“We arrested so many people that they sent us a Lynx bus for the adults to take them to jail, and a Lynx bus to take the juveniles to the JAC [Juvenile Assessment Center] and get them processed,” Maldonado said.
Maldonado ended up deciding to go into school security because he wanted to try to prevent the missing and abducted children cases he dealt with towards the end of his job as a detective.
“Maybe I can make a difference before kids are running away,” Maldonado said.
Maldonado’s degrees aren’t just helpful in the police department, but also with being a parent.
“I’m pretty good at calming people down when they’re in some sort of a crisis state,” Maldonado said. “One of the ways we look at it is you give someone two options and both options are wins for you. So, it would be ‘Do you want to clean up your room before or after you finish your snack.’”
Maldonado’s hobbies are working out and also playing sports with his 10-year-old daughter. They play with a group of friends that are the parents of children Maldonado’s daughter has been in school with since Pre-K.
“[The sport] depends on what our kids want to do, so they’re taking tennis lessons, so we end up playing tennis with them or golf lessons,” Maldonado said.
Maldonado said his favorite part of school security is the students.
“Getting to know the staff and students hopefully brings them a sense of security; letting them know that they’re safe and no one’s going to be coming on campus to do anything to them,” Maldonado said.
