Despite recent violence, Houston officers remain committed to community

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Deputy Constable Santos Torres has been patrolling our streets for 26 years, but he's never seen so much hostility and racial tension.

"There's uneasiness when we go places. Some people make snide remarks. Other people will come up and give us a, 'Hey how are you doing?' It is what it is."

"I get it," he added. "I'm a minority and I get both sides of it."

While driving, he constantly scans the buildings around him.

"We look for ambush points," he said, while pointing out an apartment complex. "You see where you're walking in, it's a perfect funnel with interlocking fields of fire and you're walking into it."

Deputy Torres has never fired his weapon, and says almost all of his stops are pleasant -- but he has a wife and three children at home who he's always thinking about.

"They worry about me," he said. "What happened in Dallas first hit us hard, then Sunday was like, 'Wow.' I understand law enforcement makes mistakes but we're expected to make decisions this quick where somebody can sit back there and armchair quarterback us."