Tucson Standard

The Tucson Police Department is on a mission to ensure that 30% of its sworn officers are women by 2030.

With that goal in mind, department officials recently held a Women in Public Safety event where women from the force talked about their roles and engaged those who could be thinking of becoming recruits.  

“I was convinced to go on a ride along and I went and I loved it,” recent police academy grad Kate Bravo told KGun9.com. “Be aggressive. Don’t be afraid. You have a lot of support.” 

Officer and recruiter Melissa Ayun stressed the importance of having female officers at all levels of the department.  

“Having women in all ranks and all assignments throughout the department is important to us,” she said. "Holding events like the Women in Public Safety provides the opportunity for females to come out and see multiple females that are already doing this job and maybe will relate to one of us.”

Finally, assistant police chief Monica Prieto, a 24-year veteran of the department, implored all females harboring dreams of becoming part of the force to have no doubt that they are capable of doing anything they put their minds to.

“As women we kind of self-doubt and think that being a police officer is a lot to do with physical ability when in fact it’s very mental,” she added. “Be curious and try things out. Ask yourself, why not you?"

Currently, about 16% of the Tucson department’s sworn law officers are females.