SAN ANTONIO – After years of being a stay-at-home mother and listening to her husband’s stories, Tatiana White decided it was time to make a difference in her community and join her spouse in becoming a San Antonio Police Officer.
“I already had started a career and started staying at home to have kids and then my husband went through the police academy and started with the police department,” White said.
“He was always telling all the things he did, he never held back … which I loved and appreciated and it made me so interested in doing it myself,” White said.
Despite graduating from the University of Texas at San Antonio with an Anthropology degree, White said she saw herself working in a police uniform rather than in a lab coat.
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“They always tell you, ‘Hey, you’re going to be stuck in a lab for the rest of your life or doing research,’” White said. “You don’t ever really make a difference with the people you’re researching. You get involved in their life for a short time but here, you can actually do something with what you learn about people.”
White said she explored the idea many times until one day, during a bible study session, a fellow member came up to White after hearing she was contemplating submitting a job application for SAPD.
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“I had always talked about what (my husband) was doing and wanting to go back to work. Then when I found out she had been an officer and kind of pulled me to the side one day after bible study and was like, ‘Hey, we should talk if that’s something you’re kind of leaning towards,'” White said.
After talking to the woman, White learned Sgt. Frances Jackson was actually one of the first African-American females to ever join SAPD and her service not only paved the way for women, but for more minorities to join the department.
“She (Jackson) was a single mom at the time and to be a single mom, an African-American female in the 60s, 70s joining the police department … to have somebody who knew exactly what I was going to be going through as a mom and as a minority female joining the department,” White said.
“Everything she went through and paved the way for the rest of us was awesome,” White said.
White said her family has a long history of serving in some sort of public service, starting with her father who was a fireman in his home country of Venezuela.
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People who have different cultural backgrounds such as her's should give public safety a chance -- SAPD, San Antonio Fire Department or Bexar County Sheriff’s Office -- especially when they will be serving in a diverse city such as San Antonio, White said.
“Our police department actually matches ethnically the community and that’s so important to understand who you’re talking to when you’re talking to them,” White said. “Because if you don’t have a connection to the community you’re talking to, you cannot help them.”
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The purpose of Saturday’s “Diversity in Public Safety” event is to showcase the cultural diversity within San Antonio's public safety units, SAPD Careers website says.
To learn more about the upcoming and what to expect at this year’s event, follow the link.
agarcia@ksat.com
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