Cumberland County Deputy Shawn Aytes has been named Officer of the Year by the Tennessee Highway Safety Office.
Aytes recently completed the Emergency Medical Responders program, which is an intensive course to complete. Aytes was able to complete the course even though, two days into the course, he lost his 19-year-old son. Aytes said working and completing the program was a way for him to cope with the loss.
“I called my Sergeant that Sunday, I said, ‘if it’s just all the same to you all, I said I’d just rather… get back in my car and keep going,’” Aytes said. “So I didn’t want to sit at home anymore.”
Though Aytes received the award, he said he is not any better than the rest of the deputies. Aytes said he is humbled to receive the award.
“I just come in and work and try to get home in one piece just like anybody else,” Aytes said. “We have got a lot of good deputies there. And matter of fact, most of them, I have learned off of. So my work ethic and the way I do things is a reflection on the entire department. It takes the whole department to raise up a good deputy.”
The officer of the year award is also given to a deputy who is dedicated to serving their community. Aytes said he is dedicated to serving Cumberland County because it is his home.
Aytes said he started working in law enforcement in the Lake Tansi area in 2018. Aytes said he had made several drug arrests but left law enforcement and went into corrections, as he was not sure if law enforcement was for him. Aytes said one day at a gas station, a lady he had arrested years before told him that he had saved her life by arresting her, as it was her starting point to becoming sober.
“That’s whenever I decided to get back into law enforcement,” Aytes said. “So that’s why I came to work for the Sheriff’s Office. We may be out here making drug arrests, we may be out here, and it may seem like we are ruining somebody’s day, but it makes me smile whenever somebody comes to me, saying they got off of drugs. I don’t care what I get paid in this department, that right there is just… if that’s all I can do to get payment, that is good enough for me.”
After receiving the award, Aytes said that if his son were still here today, he would want to let his son know that he is proud of him. The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office recently promoted Aytes to corporal.