Story and video by Amanda Moulton

Chris Germansen is a Deputy Sheriff Generalist at the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, and although he as been a deputy for only six years, it had always been in the back of his mind.

“I always knew I wanted to get into some type of job where I was helping people, whether it be law enforcement, fire, military, something along those lines. Some type of peace officer role, where I could give back to the community,” said Deputy Sheriff Chris Germansen.

Even at a young age, Germansen knew what career path he wanted to take. In elementary school, he would write that he wanted to be a police officer.

As Germansen got a little older he started to get an interest in the fire department. While attending college he ended up getting back the passion for law enforcement.

Germansen chose a career at the sheriff’s department because, “there are so many opportunities they have to offer, we have off-road teams, K-9, pilots, there are so many different aspects of law enforcement we could get into,” said Germansen.

When asked about the coolest thing he’s ever done, with a huge smile on his face, you could tell the excitement he has about his career.

“I think my job every day is pretty cool, it changes so much… I don’t know if there’s one single thing that I would say is the coolest thing I’ve ever done, I couldn’t just pin point one exact thing.”

“The job takes a toll on you just work hour wise, you always have to be mentally prepared. We work 16 – 18 hour shifts, just being in that mental game for 18 hours, sometimes that’s just challenging for us,” said Germansen.

Despite the demanding hours and other challenges of being a sheriff, at the end of the day Germansen is still very passionate about his job.

“Anytime I can help out a kid or we can help out kids, it’s always something that sticks in our mind and we remember, a lot of those incidents are really sensitive just because of the nature of them but anytime you can help a kid or take a kid out of a situation that wasn’t healthy or positive for them, I think is a good thing,” said Germansen.

Empathy comes into play when dealing with all types of personalities and situations throughout the shift.

“Everybody has bad days, we come across those people who are sometimes unhappy, but like I said, at the end of the day, everybody has bad days and I think that’s something we have to remember. That’s something I always think about when I encounter somebody, I don’t know what happened prior to us contacting them,” said Germansen.

Feeling appreciative for the community he works in, “I can’t tell you the number of times somebody just says, ‘Hey, I just want to thank you guys, you do an awesome job’. There are a lot of good people out here and I think that one good experience with the public out ways the 10 bad experiences we have,” said Germansen.

When asked about the future in law enforcement Germansen hopes to work with a police dog and a job in narcotics.

“Some aspect in narcotics, that’s always been my passion, that’s ideally what I’m trying to work towards. Obviously I want to do that for a while and then take the promotional path up from detective to Sargent and up the ranks from there,” said Germansen.

“I love this job. There’s nothing about the job I would change, everything you do is a learning experience, there’s nothing I would really change or do differently,” said Germansen.