 There's a place for the female in law enforcement. I think there's a need for the female in law enforcement. I knew I could be a ranger, because I knew in my heart I wanted to be a ranger. And I just needed the chance to be able to prove it. I'd always been interested in law enforcement. And that clicked. I knew that's exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to fly airplanes and helicopters, but I wanted to do something useful with it. There are 2,000 agents in the Secret Service and approximately 160 are women across the country. And when I started 12 years ago, there were only 36. Well, I did not grow up thinking I was going to be in law enforcement. I didn't grow up with a badge on my Barbie doll. When I was little, I used to watch Perry Mason. I know it sounds a little bit hokey, but hey, I watched Perry Mason. And I used to think, what a wonderful, wonderful way to earn a living. A typical day might include duty matters, such as issuing search warrants, signing off on grand jury subpoenas, conducting a grand jury investigation. OK, now I'm going to need that fax for my 2 PM hearing. It might also involve meeting with agents, law enforcement, federal law enforcement, with respect to investigations, ongoing investigations that are happening, assessing evidence, strategizing in terms of how the investigation is to be completed. So generally, you have to research pretrial motions and make your arguments on paper to the judge before trial begins. Our lives revolve more around the courtroom versus anything else. It may involve a trial, the beginning of a trial, a jury selection. From there, you might go to another court appointment to begin jury selection for a trial, or you may have another series of hearings. The courthouse is a hub of activity wherein the US Attorney's Office is ever present. I believe that what I am doing is important, and therefore, I pursue it. I saw an article in a magazine. It was only about two inches by two inches tall advertising for customs. And I called and sent in applications, and that started the process. I started as a GS2 park aide in the Smokies. And frankly, I watched all the guys go out and go into the back country, drive the big hogs, the big blue-lighted vehicles, and trucks that look like fun. And I decided that that would be what I'd like to do. I had started out in interpretation and decided that I wanted to be out in the resource and doing something to protect it. And that's actually why I got started into law enforcement. I found myself watching a Marine Patrol officer going by one day when I literally was sweating into my varnish. And I knew him. I knew the work he did. I knew that he got paid every month, whether it rained or snowed or whatever. And I said, that looks great. Let's give it a try. I have evolved up to what is called an A-certified vessel commander. The A-level certifies you to drive every boat within a customs fleet. Our area here, which includes Port Everglades, is one of the major commercial shipping areas in South Florida. Our day can go in several different directions. I think this is probably the guy right here. He'd be pulling me out of bed saying that the Bahamian Initiative has a plane following a boat into my coastal area. Can you intercept? And we can be in the inlet within 30 minutes. And I have a speed with this particular boat of about 50 miles an hour. So I can be running offshore. And my day will be never ending after that, if we're fortunate enough to do the intercept. There's two types of smuggling. One is what we call an open load. Now, the other type is sophisticated concealment. And that usually involves concealed compartments. We have had them where they have been secured underneath ships to the ship's hulls. That's why being a dive team, we come into play. And we go and have to do an extraction of that. We have to search the bottom of a cruise ship or the bottom of a 600 foot freighter. Clear? I want to have my own personal identity because I'm not one of the guys. I'm Wendy, and I'm a female. I will be an equal. I will be a respected team member, but I'm not one of the guys. And I don't expect them to be one of the girls. I'm not an FBI agent because I want to be praised for what I do. I'm an FBI agent because I wanted to serve my country. I've always thought that the profession that I would choose in life would be one wherein I could make a difference. I want to become a law enforcement officer to protect the resources and make a difference. And I think every person, if they examine themselves and law enforcement and why they're in it, it's not necessarily to tell people what to do, but you get this savior complex and you feel like you can make a difference. And if I don't do it, if I don't dedicate myself to it, then who's going to do it? Somebody's got to get the guns off the street. Somebody's got to get these grenades off the street. One example of how a case is generated. An informant comes in and gives you some information. At that time, I'll go through the computers, then I'll punch the name in into our national computer and see if he has any record, any criminal history. And we'll set the first meet. And by that time, I've already told her what to tell him, what the story is that I want him to know. And they do a good job, you know, make your life easier on that first meet. Then I'll set up a second meet. And what I try and normally do is to see how much this guy could give me and to see what his prizes are and really to see if he has any supplier, because that's what we want to get off the street is the guy that's really got the big stuff. Okay, he is showing her the guns at this point. Okay, here we go, take down guys. All right, let's go. But there's only a few of us that really dare to go out into the streets and actually target these kind of individuals and actually purchase these kind of deadly weapons. The challenges is what's gonna make me a better person. It's gonna make me stronger because I'm gonna have to keep thinking. I'm gonna have to keep trying. Well, at a little one, I have a 12-year-old stepson. I have a little one, a five-year-old. He's like, mommy's going to jail today. They do worry. Sometimes they don't want to know everything I do. I kind of pick and choose what I tell them because who wants to scare their mom, you know? Yeah, they worry about me and, but they also let me know that they think that I'm very capable and they have confidence that I can take care of myself. I think they were more concerned that I was moving a greater distance away than they were that I was getting into law enforcement. My family has been extremely supportive of my decision to come into this field. My mother has always worried. The Secret Service protects not only the president and the vice president. First lady, the vice president's wife, the children, former presidents, but we also protect heads of state and heads of government while they're guests in this country. I am currently assigned to the liaison division for the Secret Service. And the liaison division is responsible for primarily gathering protective intelligence from other federal agencies for the purpose of gathering protective intelligence and feeding it to our intelligence division. Our primary function is to maintain this relationship with the U.S. Capitol Police and the House and Senate Sergeant at Arms for the purpose of gathering this protective intelligence information as it pertains to threats against any of our protectees every protectee that the Secret Service brings up to the Capitol Hill is essentially advanced by either me or my partner, Agent Enright, and we split that up. We do spend our time training and focusing so that we're in the right place at the right time. If that place is between a gun and the president, then I was in the right place at the right time. As a female, I know I don't have the physical strength as a man, so we do more listening and we do more talking. You don't, so to speak, have the macho image. You want to see what's going on and you're more apt to talk your way out of it. I think we're in an advantage because women are a little more sensitive. We tend to use our mouths more and our brawn less. But women do seem to bring more of a commonsensical approach to things sometimes. Hey, let's talk about it, we'll deal with it, calm down, calm down. You have to be quick and sharp when you're in law enforcement but there's also a time to be gentle and to sit back and let people talk to you, let them provide information to you. I think that works well with a woman. Compromise, not backing up, but being willing to provide options as opposed to drawing a line. This is it. I came here as the chief ranger. I am now the person who's responsible for visitor protection for the law enforcement rangers and for interpretation. What kind of problems have you had with these kids? Not just the minor ones, they're a little noisy last night. Fort Jefferson drive to this national park is actually about 68 nautical miles from Key West. Fort Jefferson on one six. How's that youngin'? Livin' and workin' out here, I have had to learn what fishing gear is supposed to look like, what boats are supposed to look like, how they're supposed to carry, what the people look like. Just the normal day-to-day operation. The sea plane visitors who come in typically are people who are gonna come in, spend two hours or spend a half a day. They're interested, most of them are interested in the fort. They wanna see this fort. So you try your best to make them feel like this is theirs because it really is. You always wanna recognize that it's the national park service. Welcome, nice to see you. Hi, Anna. And that we need to get ourselves into the mode of thinking that these visitors who come here deserve some kind of service from us, whether it's educational or it's law enforcement. Let's go right through here. You wanna go up? It's 90 minutes for a back-up. I'm your only law enforcement officer stationed out here. There are things that actually happen out here. This is my beat. This is what I do, and what I do is I'm a federal law enforcement officer. I would hope that anybody who watches me work or watches me livin' out here sees where I live and how I live knows that I love it. If I didn't love it, I'm actually smarter than this. I'd go do something else. You just do what you know needs to be done and you go on. You never think about the danger. I'm never afraid. I won't go headfirst into something that I know that I can't handle. If there's two boats out there and I'm by myself, if I feel uncomfortable, I won't make the stop. I'll hang back, I'll follow them to the ramp, but I'll make sure someone is at the ramp to help me. I think you need to know your own limitations. Yes, it does worry me sometimes, but anything can happen to me. It's not just here on the job, but going to the grocery store, walking across the street to take the kids to school or anything, so you can't really just let stuff like that just put a damp on you. Well, I would say that it is a unique part of my job, the fact that I'm a woman at a male institution because I may work at housing units and may have up to a hundred or more male inmates in that unit that are basically trying to keep the peace, to maintain a sort of calm sense in the units and keep down fights over pool equipment, on a TV, the channels, games, so you basically monitor units. You do shake down the units to keep down the influx, high influx of contraband where there's a new sense of horror contraband. You all right? Special housing unit, I work special housing unit where we maintain inmates that may be problems on the outside unit, so they're locked down basically 23 hours a day. You take them out for showers, for rec, or maybe to change sails. We also do cell shake downs and segregation units. I think that the male inmates, as well as my male colleagues have respect for me because of the way I carry myself, the way that I deal with inmates, I try to treat them like people and be firm and fair, so the times are changing. You have to wait until they call a next move. I think since I've been in the Bureau of Prison as a young woman in corrections that I have excelled fairly quickly because I am a good listener and I can learn very quickly, now look for me, look for me. I'll be here for the long haul. I don't think of that when I start my day. I don't think, oh, I'm a woman, I better work harder today. That's not how I start my day. I think women will always have to try harder. The microcosm of the FBI or other law enforcement agencies that are in existence is a part of the bigger scenario of life and in some ways that old saying it's a man's world is certainly true. I believe as an African-American female prosecutor, there is one set of expectations that I must meet. And as a female prosecutor, there is a set of expectations that I must meet. Yes, I do believe that you have to be twice as good. And in fact, I have a tacky little sign and I generally speak and hate him that says a woman who strives to be as good as a man is lacking in ambition. I don't think I have to work harder. I think I want to work harder to make it easier for females who come behind me that are doing the same job. As a supervisor on a sub-district level, I supervise in the field 70% of the time and 30% of is behind the desk. What we do during the day is basically airboat patrol. We patrol approximately 125,000 acres plus a day use area at Shark Valley, which sees hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. We patrol our boundaries, do markings on the boundary, look for any kind of intrusion that may have happened the night before or the week before. Boaching in Everglades, especially in Tamiami sub-district are quite heavy. We border the Cyprus National Preserve, which is a hunting area. When we do a stop in the Everglades on airboats, what we're looking for, we're looking for current registration. We look for any kind of frogging apparatus or any kind of weapons. Depending on whether it's hunting season, we make sure the guns are unloaded. Check their licenses, make sure that they know the regulations. And then during the night patrol, we go out looking for intrusion. We look for actual persons on airboats or buggies intruding into the boundary of Everglades National Park. To navigate out in the Everglades, you learn the shape of the hammocks. You learn the turns of the trail. It's just doing it over and over again. You can't go out once and learn it. You have to go out all the time and just keep doing it. You need to be able to take care of yourself and you need to be fully trained and committed. If you love what you're doing, you'll be good at it. I also work with some officers who still feel that it's not a women's place or a women's place in law enforcement is for searching female prisoners. It's a necessary evil, if you will. In the beginning, I used to think I had to be macho until I realized later on I will just be myself and they can take it or leave it. I think there's always going to be some resistance or some perception that they have no business doing that type of work, but I think it's gonna be less and less. The fact that we are women in law enforcement, we do have a degree in machismo. We wouldn't be doing this job. It's, we're not showing up with lace on our socks. I tend to think that a woman shouldn't be macho to be in law enforcement. A woman should be a woman. My typical day, I come to work in the morning. I generally tend to some paperwork, return phone calls, messages that I've received either previous day or early that morning. I create any paperwork that I need to, regarding any investigation that I conducted the previous day. I'm in the process of attempting to indict a large number of individuals from an investigation that I've been working on the past two years. So I liaise on, I work with the assistant United States attorney who will be prosecuting the case. And we prepare testimony for the grand jury. Bedroom one has the closet over here. We conduct search warrants. We execute search warrants. So we execute arrest warrants. There's a lot of time spent in preparing for those activities and rehearsing those activities and making sure that everything's gonna run safely and smoothly. Something happened this morning, as a matter of fact, that kind of made me feel good when I came into work. One of the males on my squad left a voicemail message on my telephone and said congratulations on some of your recent accomplishments and wanted to let you know that I'd go through a door with you. And that to me is the highest compliment that you can pay another agent. They know that I can pull my load, pull my weight around here. And I think they respect me for that. Generally, the situation has been that the males have wanted to work with me. I can only speak from my own experience. And I think that's a matter of how you conduct yourself and the reputation that you earn for yourself during your time at work. I believe all the deputies I work with do feel comfortable working with me in any situation. You know, when it comes down to it, they know I'm the boss and they don't seem to have a problem with that. Oh, my typical day, it starts out extremely early. One of the things that's very important to me is remaining in good physical fitness. You can't do this job and not be in shape. I come into the office because I'm responsible for managing a program on the forest as well as doing field work. I have four male law enforcement officers that work for me and one legal technician who's another one. Hang on a second, would Mike have it on his part? I'll set priorities and we work together primarily as a team. Okay. And we do patrol on Snowmobile, two officers at a time. Well, there's a warrant for your arrest. Just face the officer, put your hands on, talk your head, there you go. And one of the unique things that we have to deal with that most police agencies don't, is how do you transport somebody you've arrested out on a Snowmobile? What do you know about your warrant? I don't know nothing about it, this is a mistake. You put the suspect handcuff facing rearwards and then you have the second officer riding behind the first officer and they transport that way. We're required to re-qualify with our firearms and our defensive tactics training every quarter and so what we do is try and make it as real as possible and we will set up a combat course that will require the officers to utilize cover and concealment and the terrain around them, the rocks and the trees and the targets that we utilize are what we call knockdown targets. He's hit, he's down. I've grown tremendously professionally and personally and it's a great job. It's a fun job. I think when you're young, you're out of college, you're in your 20s, how can you imagine that one day you will be in Kathmandu, Nepal, protecting the First Lady of the United States? How could you even imagine something like that? Some days this is the best job in the world, I'm outside, I'm doing a variety of different things, it's not boring to me and I'm out meeting people. Since I've been with the Bureau, I've had so many opportunities that are just inherent in the job to learn, to travel, to meet so many people that I would never ever have been exposed to to learn about different lifestyles and that's one of the benefits and one of the pleasures of the position and one that keeps me waking up happy every day and ready to go to work. I can go to work every day of my life and say I'm doing what I really wanted to do all my life. There are a lot of people who can't say that. I was actually the first female pilot hired in customs and a lot of respects that made me very proud. It showed me that my training in background counted for something. Launch the Black Hawk, launch the Black Hawk. The Black Hawk, I fly as a co-pilot. You have to be able to get that airplane airborne and working in a law enforcement mode in eight minutes. So it has to be completely preflighted, inspected, all your gear put on board. That helicopter is a big mission. He tries to round up everybody and let his ground crew out to arrest people. The flying is difficult in that the terrain is constantly changing and moving. We're also flying low level and without lights and you're concentrating on the law enforcement aspect as well as the flying aspect so you have to split your time between watching that smuggler and not being detected by him and flying safely and not running into the terrain. I fly the citation as captain and the mission of the citation is interdiction. That aircraft was specifically designed to with radar and flare track potential smugglers that are flying into the country illegally from Mexico or from Canada in some cases. Now what he's doing now, I'm gonna pull in for an ID. You wanna bug me down to about 4,500. The crew concept is critical. When you're in an aircraft and you're flying a law enforcement mission, you're concentrating on being safe. You're concentrating on following that suspect. You're concentrating on flying. It's fatiguing and it's difficult but that's part of the excitement of the job. That's fun. Spent my first Christmas with the FBI conducting a homicide investigation up on an Indian reservation. Spent my first Thanksgiving involved in a kidnapping up in the mountains of Western Arizona. And I've been called upon many times to react during holidays and in the middle of the night and do so willingly. I have no qualms about that. But most importantly being able to have a family myself being able to have a child or so. And I've given all that up for my career because I never find the right moment to say I gotta stop. I can say that if I had it to do over I would number one be a mother and number two be a park ranger rather than at some points I can say that my child was not first and he should have been. So there's a price. Just this past Saturday I gave up my son's first football game. I've missed his first play. I've missed my daughter's games. But when you're there you just make it I believe in quality time not the quantity of it. So when I'm there I ensure that it's important. In the beginning of the morning you will be assigned a deputy that you're gonna be working with. You and this deputy will go to the local jails in the area. Take out anywhere between 10 and 20 prisoners you produce them in court. You stay there during all these court proceedings and then as soon as he's done you bring him back upstairs to the sub block. Within the martial service there's the NASF program which is the National Asset Seizure and Forfeiture Program. I've seized boats in the past. I've seized live animals. I've seized bars, discos, anything and everything that can be seized. We will seize. There's a lot of surveillance. Surveillance is the longest part of the situation when it comes to actually sitting around waiting to get your guy. You can be sitting on a house for three weeks, four weeks at a time and come up with nothing but you have to be there at that one time where you see him there and then then in turn you either hit the house, you get your probable cause then to get your search warrant. Whatever you need to continue on with your investigation. And I believe what I'm doing is the proper thing for me. So when I weigh the differences there's not much of a difference. I'm doing the right thing. Plus I'm damn good at what I do. Don't become a cop because you watch television and it looks exciting. There's a lot missing on television. You've got to have a lot of self confidence. Know that you're capable because everyone else out there is going to question you and question your capability. I think that you just had to be very determined you got to keep up the good spirit. You got to set your own goals and don't let anybody take you down. You need to be independent. You need to be able to work alone. You need to be competent so that you can do your job when you are working alone. I think that the career opportunity is there for the taking. And you can go as high as you'd like to go if you're willing to put in the time and the work. Be dedicated. Definitely have integrity. And this goes for any person that wants to be a police officer regardless of male or female. I think integrity is the most important. My jurisdiction covers areas that are in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia. Right now I'm in uniform patrol in the George Washington Memorial Parkway and the surrounding park areas. So I do a lot of vehicular patrol. I do three, eight, ground one. Running radar, traffic enforcement and that type of thing. I also ride a scooter. A scooter meaning a motorcycle that's about 200 cc's or so. It facilitates our getting around in some of the remote areas where the bikers and the joggers and the hikers go. Going back to working in a predominantly male-oriented field. And he's a good friend of mine and we've worked together for a long time. And one day we were just talking and talking about the job in general. And he says to me, he says, you know, Chris, when I think of you and I work with you, I don't think of you as a female. But it's that attitude that you have to separate the female from the police officer. And I don't feel that way. I'm a female and I'm doing law enforcement. I got into this job because it's what I wanted to do for a living. And I figured if it's what I want to do for a living, then I should do it. It never occurred to me not to try it because I was a woman. I thank two women in law enforcement. Train yourself. Get trained. Have confidence in your abilities. Love your job. Remember it's not really a job, it's a life. I'd like to tell other women that are thinking about it, don't go into it half-hearted. If you go into it half-hearted, people will see through that and you won't succeed. When we get to the point where we recognize that everybody does the job their way, not a gender way, we've come to a realization that it's an individual thing and not a gender thing. And I think we've done that. I think every person is in charge of their life and being in charge of your life. You can be whatever it is that you aspire to be. I tell myself this little model that I came up with to help me keep focus on life. And that's that I must accept the challenges of life, quickness in my heart, and never lose hope in humankind.