There is more than one way to serve a city.
For some, it means putting on a uniform and responding when someone needs help. For others, it means finding the connection between pieces of evidence, getting critical information to officers as a call unfolds, or helping another woman see a path forward in her career.
Those different forms of service came together on September 10 at the Arizona Biltmore for the Phoenix Police Foundation’s 9th Annual Women in Blue.
The annual luncheon recognizes both sworn officers and professional staff of the Phoenix Police Department, celebrating women whose leadership, dedication and work make a difference within the department and throughout the community.
This year, three women were honored. Their careers look very different, but each tells a story about what it means to serve.
Service Behind the Badge Award: Jessica Davis
Some of the work that makes the biggest difference within a police department happens outside the public eye. The Service Behind the Badge Award recognizes a woman whose dedication and expertise behind the scenes strengthens Phoenix PD and supports the officers and community it serves.
Jessica Davis grew up in a three-generation Phoenix Fire Department family, but an interest in law enforcement led her down a different path. She began her Phoenix PD career as a police aide and eventually volunteered to take on work that would help transform the department’s approach to ballistic evidence.
Jessica became instrumental in building the Crime Gun Intelligence Unit and its work with the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, or NIBIN, which can help investigators connect firearms to multiple crimes.
In 2016, ballistic evidence could take nearly a year to reach the point where it could be entered into the national database. Today, the Phoenix team can process evidence within hours of an incident. Jessica’s colleagues credit her expertise, persistence and leadership with helping make that transformation possible.
For Jessica, giving back to the community is simply part of how she was raised. Her work may largely happen outside the public eye, but its impact can be felt far beyond it.
Elevating Women in Law Enforcement Award: Commander Aimee Smith
Leadership isn’t only about moving forward in your own career. The Elevating Women in Law Enforcement Award recognizes a woman who helps others find their way forward, creating opportunities for women to grow, lead and succeed in the profession.
Law enforcement wasn’t part of Commander Aimee Smith’s original plan. She came to Arizona from Indiana and was working for the City of Phoenix in parks and recreation when a Phoenix police officer suggested she might make a good officer. One ride-along later, she found the career that would become her calling.
Twenty-nine years later, Aimee’s impact can be seen in the careers of the women she has helped along the way. She has mentored women through promotions, encouraged them to pursue new opportunities and helped connect them with additional training and professional development through organizations including the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives.
For Aimee, that investment in others is its own measure of success.
“It means more to me to see somebody else’s success than to have my own.”
After nearly three decades with Phoenix PD, she hopes the people she has worked with remember that she was there for them, in both the highlights and the difficult moments.
Thelda Williams Up & Comer Award: Crystal Rowley
The Thelda Williams Up & Comer Award recognizes an emerging leader whose initiative and dedication are already making an impact within Phoenix PD.
Crystal Rowley first became interested in dispatch while volunteering with the Surprise Police Department’s Citizens Patrol program. A sergeant there suggested she consider becoming a dispatcher, and Crystal chose Phoenix PD because she had heard it would offer the kind of fast-paced challenge she was looking for. She began as a 911 call taker, completed nine months of training to become a dispatcher and was later recruited into the department’s newer Real-Time Operations Center.
Today, Crystal uses cameras, license plate readers and other technology to provide officers with critical information as calls unfold, whether that means locating a stolen vehicle, providing video from an accident or giving officers more context before they arrive at a scene.
She has also helped shape the program itself. During its early development, Crystal helped write the operational manual for Real-Time Operations Center specialists. Colleagues describe her as a natural leader who stepped forward while the team was still, as one put it, “building the plane while it was flying.”
For Crystal, all of that technology ultimately comes back to people. She gets to help members of the community on some of their worst days while doing everything she can to help keep responding officers safe.
Celebrating Every Kind of Service
Jessica, Aimee and Crystal took very different paths to Phoenix PD, and their work looks very different today.
That’s part of what Women in Blue celebrates. Behind the Phoenix Police Department are women serving in different roles, at different stages of their careers and often in ways the public may never see.
The Phoenix Police Foundation is proud to help bring those stories forward and give our community an opportunity to recognize the people behind the work. Proceeds from Women in Blue also support Foundation programs that equip, honor and assist Phoenix officers and their families, allowing the impact of the luncheon to continue long after the event itself.
To Jessica, Aimee and Crystal, congratulations on this well-deserved recognition. And to all of the women of the Phoenix Police Department, thank you for the many ways you serve Phoenix.
