Her Story
About Krista
I've wanted to work in law enforcement since I was a kid. Initially, I wanted to be a local police officer in my town, but in New Jersey, you take a civil service test to get hired, and I came up high on the Sheriff's Office list for corrections. That's where I started, and then I moved over to the law enforcement side about a year into corrections. I liked the schedules and the fact that being a county agency, we have more to offer, like a K-9 unit. Before getting hired, I started young in our local town's EMS cadet program at 15, running ambulance, and that's how I got to know the police officers. I became a paid EMT for a little bit before I got hired. I got promoted to sergeant very young in my career and spent most of my time in that role supervising court security and judicial protection. I was put on the core committee for JSMART (Judicial Security Management Team) by the head of judicial security in Trenton, serving as their communications coordinator. I received their Officer of the Year award at the state level. More recently, I took the captain's exam and scored number one in the state. I'm now eligible to retire after 23 years, though I might stick around. I'm waiting for my captain to retire so I can move up, since I'm number one on the list.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Krista
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say I'm kind of outspoken. If I see something wrong, I say something about it, which sometimes annoys the men in my line of work, but I think they've accepted the fact that I'm gonna say what I'm thinking. I'm also a leader that lets my guys do their jobs. As long as they're dealing with it well, I support them rather than micromanaging them, so I think they appreciate that. I think sometimes women get into the role and they feel like they have to prove themselves, so they could become more bossy than they need to. Whereas if you really forge relationships with them and allow them to do what they know how to do their job, and trust in the fact that they know to do their job, they respect you more.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
First of all, they need to be in good physical condition, because we have had issues with women not making it through the police academy recently, and it's tough to see good female officers that just didn't make it through. So that's just a simple thing that they should be doing if this is what they're looking to get into. And then just kind of be yourself, and don't try to pretend like you're this - you don't have to act like a man to be in law enforcement. There's all kinds of statistics of females in law enforcement that they have less use of force, that they can be better at de-escalating situations. So being your female self and not seeming like you're trying to be one of the guys all the time is important. And don't take things too seriously - you can joke around and have fun and just be yourself. It's a brother and sisterhood.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I feel like it's more accepted now for women in law enforcement. When I first started, I was lucky in the fact that most of the line-level officers really accepted me right away, and there were a few females before me, including one sergeant when I got in there, so it was already kind of acceptable. Now there are definitely more opportunities. We just had a female officer start not that long ago, and she's out on maternity leave right now, and where maybe in the past that would be like, oh, she kind of gets forgotten about, they're already talking about possibly putting her in the detective bureau while she's out. So I definitely think it's more accepting, and they don't necessarily just write you off as, now you're a mom, you're not going to be interested in stuff. The fact that women's emotional intelligence is being recognized is another great thing. A lot of special victims units have female detectives because they have that emotional intelligence, and both women and men of sexual assault kind of open up more to women than they would to male officers.
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