National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives’ Post

Transcript

Women have always had a powerful figure in history. We prove every day that we deserve to be respected as much. We deserve to be able to show what we can do because we can do all things. Everyone is strong. Every woman has a voice, and your voice matters. There's so many things that you can accomplish. There's so many things that you can do. There's so many opportunities. I've been in the headspace that there's no way out. Even going through the Academy, there's been times where I said this is too much, I can't do it. But there's always something in you that can still fight. You have fight in you and especially young girls, you get overwhelmed thinking that you can't do the certain things that a man might be able to do. You can do whatever you set your mind to. I fought for my career for a long time, whether it was in the Academy, whether it was before it. I have always told myself, I've always told other young women. If you set your mind to it, you can do it. You can fight for what you want, because nobody's stopping you. The only person that's stopping you is you. I can make a difference and so can you. I wanted to help the community. I knew that from day one. I wanted to help those young girls that didn't know what to do. To help those individuals that are just a little lost in life need a push and the Police Department had always been my dream since I was a little girl. I remember seeing my first police officer, that was a woman. She handled it so well. I just looked at her and I was like, I can do that one day. And when I saw the women on the force and seeing what they do and how they interact with the community, they impacted me to move forward in my career knowing that I can do it and to not give up. When you're a police officer, you have to wear several hats. You have to be a therapist. You have to be, well first responder. You have to be someone's mom, someone's dad. You have to be that helping hand in somebody's life. In how you enter it, in the attitude that you have. How I respond to that call matters. How I talk to people matters. And I've always been big on treating everybody with the most respect that I can because everybody deserves that. No matter if you get a call that somebody's yelling at you, you're coming into somebody's life at the worst time possible. We get the call when everything has just came to its breaking point and where the glue that holds it together. So if you're going to be the glue, you have to be community based, you have to be community bound, you have to be involved. You have to want to help because if you don't want to help, then there's not really a point in doing the job that I do. I just say it to the person that feels like you can't handle it anymore. Yes, you can. You can handle it. You can do it. You have the community that surrounds you. You have police that are like me that will be there for you.