Angela Irizarry

It actually all started with an admiration of the character Detective Olivia Benson from Law & Order: SVU. But it also stemmed from a personal experience. I was molested as a child, and the trauma from that, especially in the Hispanic culture where it's something you don't speak about, shaped my path. Watching that TV show empowered me, watching her role, and I knew that I wanted to pursue something where I would be the voice for the vulnerable. I don't like to refer to them as victims, I like to refer to them as survivors. I had the opportunity to apply to work for Hayward Police Department on the civilian side, just got my foot in the door working in crime prevention doing community outreach. Being out there, I realized I can do more. So I became a police officer, went to the academy, and I was one of only two females in my academy class. In less than two years working on the street level, I promoted to detective, and it was a dream job working in the Special Victims Unit. I was exposed to a lot of sex crimes dealing with children, then had the opportunity to work closely with sex trafficking victims. I became a vice detective and ran a task force in the Bay Area where our focus was to locate the sexually exploited children that were being sex trafficked. It was probably the most challenging position I had because you're dealing with children that don't see themselves as victims. Being able to bond with these kids, it was one kid at a time. I knew if I was able to touch one kid to convince them to get out of the life, I knew I did my job. After promoting to sergeant, I eventually went back into investigations and ended my career as a detective sergeant in the Special Victims Unit, being able to mentor officers and detectives to see the passion, to help these vulnerable people and that it's just not another case to investigate and clear off, but to provide them the resources. I taught at the police academy and worked at the schools. When I finally retired and moved to Texas, I had the opportunity to work for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on the civilian side, being a liaison with law enforcement and being there for families who have kids that are missing. I feel like it's gone full circle. I'm not ready to give it up, and I want to continue to educate the community and be available for law enforcement to share my expertise.

It definitely is my mother. She was a single mom for many years raising me. The resilience that I have, the strong mentality comes a lot from her. She is a cancer survivor three times. Just watching her be resilient through that period of time, and even now she's still dealing with health ailments, but it doesn't stop her. She's in her 70s, still working. She's known as everybody's mother. She works at a funeral home, so she's the first point of contact when a family comes in, whether they just lost somebody or they're preparing for funeral services, and she shows that empathy. Everybody loves her. I know I get a lot of that from her. She worked hard, she made sure I had a great education. She eventually remarried and made sure that the man she chose was choosing us, and he was more of a father to me than my own father. I've seen her go through life with cancer and still be so cheery and be there for others. I've also surrounded myself with very strong women. In my career in law enforcement, I was very fortunate to have strong women in my circle, whether we've all promoted to sergeant, to lieutenant, one of them who's a chief of police. I've always surrounded myself with women where they would influence me to just keep trying harder and picking goals. We were never competitive with each other. If anything, we empowered each other. I have one friend that's a lieutenant but she's also in city council. I have another friend who's a chief of police at another agency. I've always been a big fan of just always having positive, strong women in my inner circle. And even though it's a fictional character, Mariska Hargitay has inspired me. I had the opportunity to meet her in New Jersey when I was actually an SVU detective at the time, and I let her know that one of the reasons why I became a police officer was because I wanted to be a detective in SVU. The reason why she has inspired me is because she has used that role also in real life. She has a Joyful Heart Foundation, she's the founder of that, and it's a foundation for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. She's on the political forefront getting all the DNA rape test kits tested in all 50 states. She uses that in real life to be the voice for the vulnerable and to make change in how we investigate.

Don't let your gender restrict you. Law enforcement is still a male-dominated field. I don't know if we're ever going to change that. However, I'm still seeing huge strides. You hear more, you know, a personal friend of mine is chief of police. You're starting to see that at that level. Don't let your gender close the door. If you want to pursue going into law enforcement or whatever capacity it is, do it. Don't let even the physical fitness prevent you from doing it. It's all about training your mind and training your body. The other thing is really learning and taking leadership courses, because even in this field, even if you're at patrol level, if you're responding to a scene, once you get there, that is your scene, so you've got to run with it. Take the opportunity to take leadership courses because that goes a long way. There's just so much with technology now, with the whole thing with AI. Even learning the skills on how to use those tools, because it can be applied to anything. But for the most part, it's just having that self-confidence, being able to know that you can do this field. There's so many opportunities out there, whether if you want to go on the investigation side or if you want to promote and go all the way up to chief. Always find a mentor and network. That is so important. Unfortunately with this generation, they're so stuck being on their phones all the time. Step out of that. It's all about networking in person and let them see you, because you can write a perfect resume or profile, but go beyond that and show who you are. That's where building that confidence, how to speak with people, how to network, volunteering, and just not getting so consumed in one subject expertise but opening your mind to different opportunities and finding something that you're passionate about. In law enforcement, you can find yourself in anything. There's a lot of opportunities. For me it was dealing with the vulnerable people, but it may not be a forte for somebody else who may be more interested in gangs or drugs. Just find what your why is, and when you find what your why is, it makes it so much easier to go down a path.

Angela will be jumping in to add more detail regarding her inspirations, how she would like to connect with our readers, how she would like to inspire and make a greater impact in the future, Her joy is outside of work, her accolades and accomplishments we can highlight, and any additional detail she would like to share with our readers regarding her career and what empowers her that she would like to share to inspire the next generation and lead them into a successful lives as an advocate invoice for others.

Definitely integrity. Integrity is important even just in the work life and in the personal life. Do the good even when nobody's watching. At the end of the day, I always reflect, okay, what good deed did I do today? Having a positive attitude. I'm a big firm believer in journaling. It's about the values of just being good to others. We live in a time where it's so easy to get caught up being a troll online, gossip, getting caught up with all the juicy drama that's happening, but how about not doing that? I used to teach kids in the high school about bullying. Don't be that bystander, be the upstander. Even though I don't have the badge anymore, I'm always thinking about if I needed to step in and save someone, would I do it? I'm always playing the what-if. Wonder Woman is my alter ego, by the way. I kind of live through her truth and what she believes in: love, humanity. There's just not enough of it. Even right now, there's just so much hate out there. Just being that upstander. Upstander and integrity. Now being 51 years old, I'm divorced, but I decided I didn't have any children. Instead, I became a dog mom. I had to deal with my family without that expectation of having kids. Being from a Latin culture, we're known for having kids, but it was a choice that I chose not to. After I retired, I worked at a high school, so I filled that void by adopting 900 high school students. I mentor a lot of kids. Now being in my 50s, your body goes through transitions, you go through menopause. I've learned a lot about that. Fitness has always been a big part of my lifestyle that's helped me get through a lot of the challenges physiologically and physically. I tell a lot of my girlfriends, believe it or not, fitness can help with stress level, can also help with your confidence, can also help as we're aging so you become more mobile and flexible. It's just the main thing is stress. You just learn how to love fitness. It shouldn't be a chore. You've got to find a passion in it, whatever physical activities. That's one thing I promote a lot: fitness has always been a big part of my life.