Carla Burr

Jesus first, and then I had some great family. My dad was my biggest supporter, along with my dad's parents and my mom. I learned strength and determination from them. And then just perseverance. I'm a very stubborn person, and a couple of people early on told me I couldn't do this, but I had the right people in my life that told me I could do anything I want, and so here I am, years later, doing what I want.

The best career advice I've received is to always remember who I serve. Always be kind to people and remember who I serve. As a police officer, we have a lot of power to influence people's lives, so just remember that those people are human beings and treat them with respect. Just remember to be kind. When I was young, you could see so many bad things, and it was easy to think us versus them. But even if someone did the worst thing in the world, they're still a human being and deserve at least to be treated like a human being. Someone told me that, and it just always stuck with me, because I thought, you know, sometimes it's hard to see that when they're doing some of the horrible things they do, but they still deserve at least humane treatment.

I would tell them that if this is what they want to do, if they want to be in law enforcement, then they absolutely can do it. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. We don't hear it in 2026 like we heard it in the 1990s when I started. Back then, there were a lot of people that said women shouldn't be in law enforcement, but I don't believe that you can do it without women anymore. There's so many things you can't do without women, period, and for sure you can't do law enforcement without women. There's just things that we need to be there for, for our community. It's still hard sometimes. There's a lot of physicality to it, and shift work doesn't care if you have a husband, they don't care if you have children, they don't care if you have things. That's just the nature of what we do. But that doesn't mean that you can't make it work. I work with a lot of very successful women who have had successful families, and they're watching their kids grow up and still doing the career that they love. Unfortunately, I was not able to have any children, but you can do that in this career, and I see it every day. So I would tell those young ladies, if this is what you want to do, then build your tribe around you that's going to support you and help you, and then go for it, and don't let anybody stop you.

I would say that the challenges are, like most women in non-traditional jobs where women aren't the majority, that's still a thing. There's still a lot of people that don't realize we have women in law enforcement. They see a woman and they're like, oh, I didn't know we had women there. And so that's still a thing, even in 2026. But there's also women that are chiefs of police and sheriffs of sheriff departments and women at every level. So I would say the opportunities are endless. Whatever you want, however you see your career, if you see your career as a career patrol officer, then that's your career. If you see it as going to the top and running the whole agency, then that's your career, and there's no limits out there for anybody. If that's what they want to do, that includes in law enforcement. If she wants to do it, she can do it.

I think family is always important and should be the most important, and it doesn't necessarily always mean just blood family. I live here and I have no blood family in Amarillo, so my family are the friends that I've had for 30 years and the family that I've chosen to be around. But also, I try to remember every day to be kind to people. You don't know what other people's stories are. It doesn't mean that you always have to be friendly or make friends, or in some cases, you don't always have to do something for them, but at least be kind enough to give them a little grace. You don't know what could happen if you aren't. You don't know how that could influence their day and change their day in a negative way, where you could also just give them a little kindness and it could change their day in a positive way. It's kind of a domino effect. I think those are the two biggest things for me: love your friends, love your family, and be kind to people.