RUBY FLORES
LONG BEACH STATE
SOFTBALL
1989-92
 
Then: Long Beach State alum Ruby Flores played four seasons (1989-92) for the softball program while majoring in criminal justice. During her time at LBSU she garnered a variety of accolades as an elite softball pitcher, including 1992 NCAA Woman of the Year (California) and two-time All-Big West Conference Second Team. Flores, who recorded both a no-hitter and a perfect game at Long Beach, led the program to three Women’s College World Series appearances.
 
Now: Flores wanted to see change in law enforcement after having an unfortunate experience with law enforcement. After working over 26 years in the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), Flores has taken on many leadership roles in the LAPD since earning her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science Degrees. Flores is one of the highest ranking females in the LAPD and is currently the Commander of the LAPD Training Group. She oversees the training of new recruit officers ensuring that they are prepared for the demanding and rewarding life-changing experience. New officers learn how much they are capable of by succeeding at seemingly impossible challenges, both physical and mental. Flores is also responsible for the on-going in-service training for the nearly 10,000 sworn officers and almost 3,000 civilian personnel.
 
Q&A WITH RUBY FLORES
 
BWC: Did you enter Long Beach State with the mindset that law enforcement was the route you wanted to go for your future career?
 
RF: As a criminal justice major, I told people that I aspired to join the FBI or Secret Service. I also had my eye on corrections, and for a brief time I was considered a career in rehabilitation. However, two chance encounters with police officers convinced me to change paths to bring changes to local law enforcement so that I could help implement the changes that I wanted in law enforcement.  When I started telling people that I might want to be a cop, I was met with a lot of uncertainty on their part because it really wasn’t a popular career choice for a female Latina graduating with a master’s degree. Some people around me thought becoming a police officer was beneath me. Some thought that my advanced degrees and knowledge would be wasted by becoming a cop. That’s when I started telling people that I was conserving the FBI and Secret Service because it sounded more sophisticated or that’s what they thought I should be doing with my career.
 
What drove me to a career in law enforcement occurred while a college student. I had an incident involving police officers, and let’s just say it was not a positive experience. It was after that moment where I realized I have to do something, not only for myself but to help my community. I didn’t like the way I was treated. Ironically, it was the poor treatment by female officers that put in motion my career choice. I was a victim of a crime and I felt like I was being treated like a suspect and with really no personal regard. They lacked professionalism and left me asking a lot of questions. I was almost sexually assaulted, nearly raped, and the officers just dropped me off at home. I did not know what to do. I had tons  of questions and no answers and I was not given the type of attention a victim deserves. I thought to myself, that is no way to treat a victim. A few years later, I had a good friend, who is now my brother-in-law, and he said ‘hey the LAPD is hiring. Let’s go check it out and let’s see if it is something you want to do.’ So I went and we both ended up passing the test and got hired. Coincidentally, he is now my brother-in-law because he was dating my sister at the time, he played football at Long Beach State under George Allen, the last team for LBSU before he died and then they got rid of the football program.
 
Really it was a turning point for me after that incident happened and I decided I wanted to do something for the community. It wasn’t a life-long dream of mine growing up. I didn’t grow up with a law enforcement family background but I had the full support of my family, especially my parents. I have now been with the LAPD over 26 years and my career choice has turned out to be the most gratifying, most rewarding, most challenging job I have ever had and I absolutely love it.
 
BWC: So, you pass the test and make it into the Police Academy. Having that friend, who is now your brother-in-law, be part of the process with you through it all must of been very beneficial.
 
RF: It was really beneficial because as athletes, we were able to train and study together. So physically I was ready for it. But also, just being able to talk to someone about what’s happening. When I joined the LAPD, It was different because they didn’t have too many women on the job then. I think being an athlete helped me really be able to jump into a profession that was primarily all men without hesitation. What sport teaches you is to not only work as team, but also to stand on your own and have the confidence to be in your own skin. To just work hard, regardless of your gender, especially in sports like softball. Nobody is ever talking about you being a girl or treating you different because you were a woman so that gave me confidence. I leaned on my friend but also on the skills that I learned from being an athlete, in terms of working hard, being physically fit and being prepared. The same way we would prepare for games, we call peak performance, that self-talk and where we are taught to visualize things. That is how I was when I was on the mound and I just carried that over to my job in police work. And I really believe in it. And I believe that is what really pushed me through.
 
BWC: When you first entered the Police Academy and then the Police Department, were the men welcoming or did you feel like you had to prove your worth to get respect?
 
RF: I would say a little bit of both. When it became known that I was an athlete at a DI school, that made people recognize that I was ready physically for the demanding job. When you talk to guys about sports they are all in so I think they appreciated that. I think that the fact I played a DI sport, it went a long way. But it also meant that they expected a lot from me. They were like ‘here’s a DI athlete let’s see what she got and what she is gonna do.’ I wanted to prove myself and exceed their expectations, and so worked harder and harder. That has been a reoccurring theme through my entire law enforcement career. People know that when you are an athlete you are going to be able to meet the physical demands and challenges of the job. For those women who aren’t athletes or don’t have an athletic background, they may believe they have the added pressure to do something to stand out and prove to the male counterpart that they would be a good partner. I remember one of my very first commendations I received when I was a probation officer. It was given to my training officer and me for performing a traffic stop on a truck that turned out to be stolen. We initiated a traffic stop on the truck and the driver took off and we ended up in full pursuit. I remember that while we were in full pursuit my training officer turned around and he laughed and said, ‘Oh Flores, you’re still here’ and he’s running. We are both running after the suspect and we ultimately end up taking him into custody. I was proud of myself because ‘yeah I kept up’ and after he made the snide comment. During the foot pursuit we had to hop a fence and I was there with my training officer as a partner, not just a rookie. I think it is funny now looking back that I got a commendation for doing my job. In reality, I now recognize that I received the commendation because I was a girl and I kept up with my male partner and that surprised everyone. That really is what it was. So yeah, I believe that women in the past have had to work harder to prove their worth initially in law enforcement, and once you do everyone will rally behind you and support you.
 
I’m sure men go through those same challenges. I think on this job since we have such a job where we have to rely on each other to go home every night. We size each other up just like we do suspects. If you are small in stature or look different than they do, they will question and wonder if that person is going to be there for them when they need help or are in trouble. It is somewhat amplified as a woman, but we are moving in the right direction of hiring more women which I am happy to be an active part of the recruitment process.
 
BWC: Over the past 26 years you have been in law enforcement how have you seen the perception of women officers change, as well as the growth of women in law enforcement?
 
RF: We are living in an exciting time where more and more women are wanting to come on the job. Although I’d like to see more women in leadership positions. Probably our biggest pool of women in the department are the police officer rank, not necessarily as sergeants and lieutenants. Currently I am in a department of nearly 13,000 and I am only 1 of 4 of the highest ranking women in the entire department.
 
I am hoping that I can leave my legacy in that regard, not only for women but for our Latino family too. At my rank, I am often the sole female in the room for a meeting. Growing up in the department I didn’t have a lot of female mentors which I think we are struggling at even now because we don’t have a lot of women in the higher ranks. I think that is detrimental to our organization where, if you don’t have someone that looks like you or you can relate too in those higher roles, they don’t see themselves ever achieving or wanting to hold those ranks. So I really take an active role in mentoring our women so they can see that we deserve to be at the table. And deserve to be leading our department the same way men are.
 
I’m also the vice president of our women’s organization for the department. It’s the Los Angeles Women’s Police Officers and Associates and that is one of the things that we really work on, developing women to reach those ranks or to work in some of the positions that aren’t normally held by women. Our SWAT team has only had one female ever in the history of the program.
 
BWC: Do you feel that women not being in some of these roles isn’t because they aren’t wanted, but because they’re female and that it is more females getting in the way of themselves and thinking they can’t be the caliber it takes to fit in some higher or more-demanding roles? So essentially women are stopping themselves?
 
RF: That is an interesting question. I think we are partly responsible for that too because we as women, if we aren’t invited somewhere ‘hey come to this meeting or hey here is the application for the sergeant’s test, I want you to take it.’ Some women need that. So why would a woman want to step into the world, let’s use SWAT as an example. That is serious physical training and knowing there has only been one woman to do it and there is no woman in the unit right now, how courageous do you have to be to do it?
 
That is why I think athletes make awesome cops. I do try to hit up all my girlfriends that are coaches at different universities. That is an audience we should really engage in terms of recruitment for all the obvious reasons we talked about earlier about the skill set we have. Also, women don’t tradi- tionally hold those positions because of kids. They decide to get married and have babies and some of those jobs don’t lend themselves to be absent for that long, and then the recovery to get fit again is challenging as a working mother. That is pretty demanding so we tend to see women go into positions like being a detective where your schedule isn’t necessarily all over the place. But that is the battle of trying to recruit women to the job and to promote, it is building ourselves so we are strong enough mentally and physically to make it.
 
BWC: For those that don’t understand the process of joining the Police Department, do you have a designated length of time on patrol before assuming other avenues such as detective, SWAT, training officers?
 
RF: Yes, that is a good question because some people want to come right in and be a detective or work the K9 unit or SWAT. There is a rank structure. You have to be in the Academy for six months, and then have a probation period in the field for a year where you have a training officer to work with. Then after that you have to work a patrol function, which is working the streets and answering radio calls, for at least three years before you can apply to take a test to be a detective or training officer or to work in a specialized unit. There are hundreds of jobs people can have in the LAPD, there is a lot of opportunity to promote and advance and work specialized assignments, although everyone must first learn the job and do their time on the streets before they can advance.
 
BWC: You mentioned there aren’t a lot of women in the police force, but the numbers are trending upward. Why do you think that is? Are there aspects of the job that might scare them and cause reservations?
 
RF: I wouldn’t say scare them off, but more that it isn’t conducive to having a traditional home life for some. Our community is such that our women on the job have spouses on the job too. So day care/child care becomes very challenging if they want to start a family. I don’t know what the statistics are for leaving the department or seeking those inside jobs, but I have seen a lot of my other classmates and women I do know where that has been the case. For me the time when I was married, my ex was on the job too. You have to design your career so it works in your favor in terms of timing. I remember when I wanted to promoted to sergeant but I had to put that on hold because at the time my husband was trying to get his pilot license so that caused him to go back to school. So I was being supportive for him and he would be supportive for me when I did promote for sergeant and I did have to travel. It becomes difficult if you don’t have a support system. Fortunately it was my parents and sister who would help by picking the kids up from school. When I was a commanding officer I would be on-call and have to respond to incidents in the middle of the night and by then I was a single parent. My mom would be like ‘bring them over’ and I’d take the kids to her house or she’d come over while the kids slept and then get them ready for school in the morning. Not everybody has that ability to have that support so it can be really hard for women. Their personal lives and goals would dictate what they would do for their job.
 
BWC: You have worked in a variety of roles during your 26 years in the Police Department. What has been your favorite?
 
RF: I have had a lot of really cool jobs and am very fortunate to hold those. I would say my favorite was as a lieutenant at Rampart, and I really enjoyed that job because I felt I could make a difference with the officers that are out there doing the work and answering radio calls and having to deal with the public that doesn’t like us. Also in being able to mentor them and encourage them to broaden their work and to help them seek promotion. We have 21 different divisions in the department so Rampart is one of those divisions that has a storied history behind it but some of the history isn’t very good based on some past incidents of corruption. The officers working there today are certainly not a reflection of what the past once was for the LAPD.
 
 The officers that work there, they have so much pride in doing the right things, serving the community with the utmost respect and doing good police work that is procedurally just but also Rampart Area had such a good sense of family and I really felt that. Even as a manager, as a lieutenant, you usually don’t get that kind of feeling because you are leadership and aren’t supposed to be part of the group but I found that I could still have that leadership role but have a really good relationship with the officers and the sergeants. So I really enjoyed that job, more so from the point of view of developing the officers.
 
In all of the jobs I have had I have been able to work with the community and that is my passion. Serving our community and providing opportunities for young girls to have a role model. There are a lot of programs and things to do in the community to demonstrate for them that ‘here is this Mexican girl who can be a police officer and be one of its leaders.’ When I was the captain in the Hollenbeck, our East LA area, I came across this organization called Prom Dresses To Give. I became friends with the organization leadership team. It’s a non-profit and what they do is collect prom dresses for girls who can’t ordinarily afford to go to prom. It just continued to grow and the owner would have this annual event giving out prom dresses and doing makeup tutorials and it turned into this girls and women empowerment type of event. I would go every year and bring my daughter and she’d bring her friends. My daughter would go and collect dresses from her friends and I would do the same and we would go to this event. The girls would get to pick out a dress and try it on. So to see another girl wear one of my dresses from a function I had gone to, or to see them pick out my daughter’s dress for their prom, would bring me to tears. They were so grateful and so happy. I would always go in uniform because I wanted the community to see that we are human just like them. That was probably the most gratifying experience where I had so many mothers that would be like ‘can I take my picture with you, my daughter wants to talk to you and take a picture of you.’ I loved it, so that was probably the most passionate thing to do in all the work that I’ve done, to realize the impact we have on our communities.
 
BWC: Did you ever have an experience when you were out in the public and was treated so badly you had reservations about being in the police force?
 
RF: That’s a good question. I would say no. I would say there may be experiences where it would become more challenging but I’ve never thought I would want to walk away from the job. I think about that more now because my son is trying to come on the job. He’s 21 and is in the hiring process and my friends would say ‘oh, what do you think about that? Do you want him to be an officer?’ And then tell me I should convince him to be a fireman, like go do something that people love, people love firemen. In talking to him, I asked him that question and his answer was firm. He said no ‘this is my dream and this is what I want to do, I want to go into police work.’ It made me even more proud of our profession and I thought that it would be hypocritical if I were to discourage him from coming on the job. It’s tougher and more challenging but I think this is just the way times have changed and evolved. You talk about social media and now that the fact we have body-worn cameras, I didn’t have any of that when I was a police officer work- ing the streets. I didn’t have people second guessing me or what we as police officers equate to the NFL, or any sport these days, where you can look at the highlights and be a Monday quarterback and watch the highlight and say what you would do. We can’t do that. We have to make split-second decisions under a microscope and cameras are everywhere. Everyone has a cell phone and everything is recorded. Officers make mistakes and police work isn’t pretty either. There is no nice way to handcuff someone and put them in the back of your car especially if they are resisting. So it does make our job harder but never to the extent where I would discourage my son from doing it or myself wanting to walk away from. I look at it like, right now government and law enforcement has always been the flash point for societal change because it is most visible. There is a lot on our shoulders and it is a huge challenge but I welcome it and I think it is exciting to be a part of it with the police reform. Although it is a little bit frightening because my definition of police reform may not be the same as others and that is where we have to come to some agreement as a society and law enforcement organization on what law enforcement is going to look like in the years to come. That is really challenging.
 
Due to the nature of my job level now I can easily say no. The extent of people yelling at me might be at a community meeting. There are some men and women that decide to work on the streets their whole career and say promoting is not for them. Those are the ones that I believe it has got to be trying on them, mentally draining when you are met with that much resentment and hatred on a day-to-day basis. I feel for those officers because they have to be the face of our department and are having to deal with that negativity. Although, I do truly believe and know first hand the vast majority of our community appreciates our police officers.
 
BWC: How do you (or someone in the department) handle the actions and beliefs put up on the police force for just one officers actions that might not even be from your department, city or even state?
RF: We are all living through it right now. All these protests and incidents we’ve had in LA weren’t even driven by an LAPD incident. It involved another agency in a different state. So it is tough and I think that constant message internally to our officers is important, like in sports, that one player’s actions affects the whole team. So what do we do, we try to get past it as a team and remind them we rise and fall as a team.  We have to encourage each other and continually talk about the reasons why we joined the department. We came to protect and serve the community and we still have an obligation to serve them and provide them with that skilled, professional service regardless of what they think of us and what we think of them, or what the national rhetoric is. I think there is still the vast majority of the community that supports us and values us, but the ones that are most vocal don’t. It is challenging and becomes discouraging for the officers. As leaders, we need to continually remind our officers how valuable they are and how they are supported and show them they are supported. It is also our job to educate or inform the community that this is what the LAPD is doing. We can only worry about ourselves. I don’t think the public always knows or understands that each department is different in terms of training and even in the laws because it varies from state to state. That has created a whole other level of challenges on top of the regular day-to-day dangers and challenges the officers have to deal with going from radio call to radio call.
 
BWC: You are currently in the training department. What interested you to move to that division?
 
RF: When I was a police officer, I was an instructor at the Academy so I was teaching human relations so part of that subject matter is domestic vio- lence, hate crime, rape, tactical communications, diversity, those were the main topics that I was teaching at the time. I always enjoyed teaching our young officers. It was that experience that I had, now as a Commander, the Chief had an opportunity to move me into this job where I oversee all the training so it was a natural fit for me. Also, I love it because I’m not only in charge of overseeing our brand new recruit officers but for the on-going training that we call in service. Your training continues, not just when you are in the Academy. It is to continually refresh some of those skills that we learn in the Academy, plus the new things. The laws change all the time. Some of our practices have changed, like right now we are looking at different methods in terms of less-lethal options. We are looking at tools that we can use as officers that don’t usually result in a shooting situation and help de-escalate a situation and ways to prevent injuries for officers and for the people we encounter. I think that is really exciting. Just like the police work of being able to learn about the new technologies and how to incorporate them into our field, I think is really exciting.
 
BWC: With the training of new officers and COVID around us, how did that alter your training?
 
RF: We always have training year-round so every month we hire a new recruiting class. So we still continued with the hiring and the Academy was still happening, but the other ancillary in-service training we were providing, we suspended that. Also, in the midst of the pandemic we had to deal with the civil unrest and we were really stretched thin in terms of personnel. But with the training, we did have to adjust and modify the classroom space and we tried to move the recruits to a larger space or move the recruits outside as much as possible with masks and hygiene protocol and everyone’s temperature are taken at the beginning when you show up for work. One thing I am really proud of is that we were able to get weekly testing done for our recruits and instructors. We had kind of an outbreak at the beginning and then we were able to adjust and manage and we have gone as long as 13 consecutive weeks where our recruit and instructors were COVID free. I think it speaks a lot to our perserverance and reminded me, not even in comparison, of the NBA bubble when they were talking about the Lakers championship win and they said the best statistic they were most proud of  is the fact they had no positive COVID cases during the season. And it’s true, I know how it is in a training environment and so we’ve made a lot of strides to continue training with minimal impact health wise. It is a challenge as police officers to learn how to navigate or manage the people we come into contact with because we are all wearing masks. I didn’t realize how much we rely on reading lips or facial expressions. It forces you to look at the full body language and it causes them to use their voice more effectively, so it’s been pretty interesting in a training environment.
 
BWC: You said you joined the force because it was a great platform to make a change. Fast forward 26 years, do you feel you have accomplished what you set out to do?
 
RF: I think I have and I’m still going. Twenty-six years and I still love my job and feel there is still more work to do. It has caused me to work harder and not to take anything for granted and there are those naysayers out there. My mindset has always been, don’t give them a reason to think or question that you aren’t the right person for the job. So with every promotion and job opportunity I have worked extra hard for that reason. I wouldn’t say be- cause I’m a woman but maybe more so it was self-imposed because I want to be a positive reflection for women and as a woman for the department. My newest assignment has been really, really challenging which is where I think I can really make a mark on this department. I’ve been named the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion officer as the mayor’s office recently announced he wanted a racial equity officer for every department throughout the city. So with our department, I had spoken to the Chief of Police and said this is more than just race. And it would be really short-sighted if we just write an equity action plan soley based on race, when we should not alienate women and the LGBTQ community. Right now African-American culture and the issues right now are the flash point for the change we are going to see but the Latinos, and we have a huge Korean and Armenian population, our city is so diverse we can’t just make it about race. It has to be about every race and be all inclusive and have a balanced approach. So that is my challenge over the next few years. How do we develop this plan and create a more diverse and inclusive work environment and how does that translate to the community in terms of police reform?
 
I’m trying to do as much research as I can. I’m enrolled in a diversity and inclusion course that Cornell University offers. I’m excited about it because there is so much to learn and a huge opportunity to create change.
 
BWC: You were a top softball student-athlete at Long Beach State and garnered many accolades and tossed a perfect game. I hear you still have ties at Long Beach State.
 
RF: I do. I love my girls. We are really close. There is a group of roughly 10 of us and we are active with the alumni to not only give back but to maintain that cohesive team pride so that’s been actually really fun. If it wasn’t for that group, I don’t think I would have been as involved with some of the alumni activity. I didn’t realize, and I don’t think many athletes do realize how good that they have it when they get a full-ride. It’s huge, it’s very significant. I wouldn’t have earned my education without it. That is one of the reasons why I am so involved because I am really grateful towards the program. I try to support it as much as I can. I am fortunate enough to have sponsored a locker just a few years ago when they  built a new locker room for the softball team. We didn’t have that when I was at Long Beach State. We didn’t even have a home field. We had to drive to the City of Lakewood to play at a city park. So with my locker, I was able to get number 9 and they asked us to pick a quote to inspire the young ahtletes - “You didn’t come this far just to come this far.” It’s kinda like what we talked about at the beginning, build your legacy. Especially as a brand new freshman you think I made it, here I am, DI school, full scholarship but there are like 20 others that made it and did the same thing too. And they were all superstars in high school. So now is the time it starts in the internal drive to excel and to build your legacy. It really takes a lot and if it were me,the freshman sitting in that locker room, that is what I would want to know or that would be the advice I would give myself.
 
But going back to my girls, they helped me through some hard times in life. They were there for me through my divorce. That was the hardest time for me and they reminded me who I was and reminded me how tough I am and I am so proud to be able to continue my work and to reach this level in a leadership position all by myself, but with them. They are lifelong friends and that is what I love about sports. Your teammates make the best friends forever.
 
BWC: They say discipline is huge in sports and clearly you need that quality in the police force and you have shown you have that characteristic. Is that something you always had instilled in you or was it something you had to build to become that disciplined?
 
RF: You know what, that was something that was instilled in me by my parents. I grew up in a very strict household, both my parents are still alive and together, but my father just had to look at me wrong and I knew I was in trouble. I remember growing up and thinking, ‘man am I missing out on every- thing’. All my friends are traveling and here I am Christmas Day on vacation pitching, practicing. One time I remember I intentionally forgot my glove and cleats while we went on vacation. Christmas morning my dad tells me to get my cleats and glove because we are going to throw and I say ‘oh man dad I forgot my stuff’ and he opens the trunk and goes ‘oh no, I gotcha.’ In high school everyone is going to the river for spring break. I didn’t do that. I couldn’t talk on the phone until I was done with my homework and as an athlete by the time you practice, do homework, eat and shower it’s 10 o’clock. So I never got to hang out and be on the phone, in fact my freshman year of college when I went to Long Beach State I was the freshman that went crazy. I remember coach, Pete Manarino, called me into his office because I went from this straight A student, I was a nerd, to here I am now teetering on maybe getting a C or a D in one of my classes. That was not me, but they didn’t take roll so I was thinking the teacher wouldn’t know if I was even gone and I was going out but I always made it to practice. My coach said ‘Ruby, right now you are in the fast lane on the freeway and I need you to get over here in the slow lane.’ We had this long talk and it scared me and I was like yeah, what are you doing, go back to your roots, the discipline and habits that got me to where I was. I had a little reality check and then I went on to graduate on the Dean’s List. It’s part of learning.
 
BWC: So you mentioned your dad made you practice softball all the time, even on holidays. Did you get invested in the sport because of your dad?
 
RF: When I was six years old my dad taught myself and my sister, she is a year older, how to pitch. My dad was an athlete in Mexico. He played bas- ketball, volleyball and little bit of baseball. He was born in Mexico and immigrated to California after he and my mom got married. I think that discipline and that natural instinct to work hard has to have come from my dad, knowing what he has been through. He decided to keep us busy with sports. We tried everything. I tried baton twirling, ballet, tap and even accordion lessons. My mom would watch and she said I was not good at softball. My dad was adamant, I never asked him why he wanted us to be pitchers and not just play softball, but he taught us how to do slingshot and my mom would sit there and watch him teach us how to pitch. Me in particular, I was afraid of the ball and could barely catchthe ball.  In fact, she told him he was wasting his time because I was so afraid of the ball. We worked on it and I excelled at it and I never tried baton twirling or the accordion again. We played all year round, probably practiced every day of the year after that, starting around age six.
 
Since I was 12, I played travel ball with Lisa Fernandez, UCLA assistant coach, Kelly Inouye, head coach at UCLA, Kim Sowder, now the coach at Long Beach State, and Deanna Mays Gumpf, the head coach at Notre Dame. We all grew up playing together, we were all in each other’s weddings and we are best friends to this day. And I am the only one that did something other than softball. If you asked them, they would say that I was the least likely to be a cop. And they laugh and say ‘you’re too nice’, but I am proud of that. In an interesting way, I don’t fit the stereotype of what people think an officer should be and I still get that. Like, ‘oh you are too nice to be a cop,’ and I am like ‘what is that suppose to mean are all cops supposed to be mean’? So that is a stereotype we have to continue to breakdown and show that human nature behind the badge.
 
BWC: Do you still play?
 
RF: No. I do miss it. Now that softball is more popular and you see it on TV, it makes me miss it. I don’t play because I figured I’d rather spend that time with my kids. The last time I played, we had a slow pitch softball game with the officers I was working with and some of the guys were telling me to throw some fastpitch. I threw some to see if I still had it and I was really sore the next day.
 
BWC: What advice would you give those inspiring student-athletes that might be eyeing law enforcement but have some trepidation?
 
RF: I love that question because that is what I always try to get at because athletes make the best cops. What I would tell them is that you never know what you are capable of until you try it and I think that was the case for me when I came on the job. I never thought or dreamed that I’d be a commander in the police department or thought I’d be the only female member in a gang unit. I was in the bike unit working South Central chasing people on my bike.I will never forget it. I have a lot of fun and great stories of personal growth and stories how I have been able to help the community and some heart-wrenching stories and circumstances of people that you meet. But I think if there is a job that you want where you know you can make a difference and feel good about it, this is certainly the job. There is excitement. Some people don’t like to function where every day is different. Like my sister, she tried to come on the job after I did but she was one of those that functions better in a 9-to-5 office business type job and she didn’t understand how we could do it.  With the shift changing and going to court and overtime, it wasn’t for her, that juggle. But for people who like the fast pace where everything is different every day and being able to really do something in the community, I think there is nothing more gratifying then having a front row seat to societal changes that are happening right now. I think it is exciting.