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SPD officer breaks barriers during academy training |
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Saturday, 13 June 2009 |
 Kelly Daniels/SDN Starkville police officer Aisha El-Amin, the first female platoon leader in the history of the Mississippi Law Enforcement Officers Training Academy, investigates a car robbery at Armstrong Middle School. By KELLY DANIELS
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Dozens of children at Armstrong Middle School snapped pictures of Starkville police officer Aisha El-Amin in her uniform and duty gear while she sat on the bleachers Wednesday morning.
“I used to be over that program,” she said, explaining her involvement with an photography enrichment effort at the Boys and Girls Club. The effort put digital cameras in the hands of every participant.
El-Amin had just investigated an incident Thursday where a student teacher at Armstrong had his car burglarized and his GPS system stolen.
She was waiting on a fellow officer to bring his camera.
In March of this year, El-Amin began work with Starkville police force as the first woman platoon leader to graduate from the Mississippi Law Enforcement Officers Training Academy.
Since then, the Starkville Police Department has awarded her with recognition for commendation.
While a cadet at MLEOTA, El-Amin said it was difficult to gain the respect of her 89 peers, most of whom were reluctant men.
“Women are often perceived as the first ones to quit, and that’s why I tried to stay ahead of everything,” she said. “If we were running, I was first in line.”
El-Amin’s encouragement grew when one man stood at attention and called her ma’am with a bloody nose.
“He had run into a locked sheet of glass,” she said.
El-Amin graduated 11th out of a class of 69 other officers. At 26, her accomplishments extend to other fields.
As a student at Starkville High School, El-Amin’s photojournalism interests gave her the opportunity to travel to Ethiopia and document her surroundings. Her photos were picked up by the Associated Press and published in the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson.
“My mom couldn’t afford to put me in college, so I signed up for the Reserves,” El-Amin said.
That decision to enlist in the U.S. Army Reserves sent her to Iraq for four years, where she constantly feared for her life.
“You never know what’s going to happen,” El-Amin said. “One day seems like five.”
El-Amin remembers seeing a moving vehicle explode after an improvised explosive device detonated, sending shrapnel into the leg of one of her friends.
“She was rushed to a hospital and lived, but she still has shrapnel in her leg,” she said.
Among many of the lessons she already learned, El-Amin adopted the philosophy of appreciating thing most people take for granted.
“It was hard and dangerous, but I’d rather protect my country so people here can be safe,” she added.
Her contract with the Army Reserves ends in about three years.
El-Amin’s journey continued with her enrollment into a doctoral program for physical therapy in Nashville, Tenn.
She had to quit, however, due to lack of funds.
Now, she is establishing a nonprofit organization for young women with the idea of redirecting their lives.
“I’m doing this to show and provide opportunities that most young women don’t have and to build some self-esteem inside them,” she said.
“I want to help them experience different things in life.”
As a police officer, El-Amin also sees role as that of a public servant.
“I don’t like taking people to jail,” she said. “But giving people a sense of safety... that’s rewarding for me.”
She also believes she could one day be the first female police chief of Starkville.
“That’s a long ways away, and it would take a lot of time and work, but I’m willing to do it,” El-Amin said.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 14 June 2009 )
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