Barbara Smith

I've been in law enforcement for about 20 years, and I'm coming up on 10 years here at Prince George's Community College. Right now I'm doing a combination of things - I'm the acting chief of police, but I also still hold my lieutenant police position, so I'm doing both. The chief position entails recruitment, budgeting, and operational duties, but in my lieutenant role as a police officer, I work with victims of crimes. On campus, you have to deal with Clery compliance, so I'm the Clery officer, and I work with VAWA, which is Violence Against Women, but also now men too can have violence against them. When you're on a campus, and actually it can be just anywhere, a lot of men victims don't like to speak up. I mentor other co-workers and female officers because this is a profession that is male-dominated. I try to lead by example and be a role model. I hope that someone says, if she can do it, I can do it. I didn't wait for someone - if there was something or something that needed to be done, I offered. I looked for training myself, made those connections and networking, and I was able to move up. Having the college community have faith and trust in me is important because that's not always the case.