In recent years, law enforcement in the U.S. has had something of an image problem, to say the least. Some blame the media; others say not enough has changed in policing itself.
But it’s safe to say that the police chief of Waco doesn’t fit any of the stereotypes about policing. Native Texan Sheryl Victorian spent 28 years with Houston’s police department before being sworn in as Waco’s top cop in 2021.
And as a Black woman with a Ph.D., she has now added another distinction to her belt: author of a new children’s book, one that amplifies the aspirational values of law enforcement and public service.
Victorian joined Texas Standard to share more about her book, “The Me I See.”
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: We have to begin with the cover of “The Me I See.” It features an illustration of a beautiful Black girl looking in the mirror at a reflection of herself in a police uniform. I have to ask, is that you on cover? Do you grow up seeing yourself as a police woman?
Sheryl Victorian: No, that is not me on the cover. I was inspired by a young lady who went to school on the first day and as a kindergartner holding up her sign saying that she wanted to be police chief when she grew up. And so the image is a mere depiction of her.
Yeah, I didn’t think it was a literal representation or anything like that, but I was curious about when it first got into your head that you wanted to be in law enforcement.
I tell you what, it’s a funny story, because I didn’t realize I wanted to be a police officer until the show “Miami Vice” and “Beverly Hills Cop” came out. And that’s when I was like, you know what? I can be a cop and work undercover like that.
So I was about 15 years old when I made up my mind that this is what I wanted to do and stayed at the course ever since.
You have quite the academic résumé. I have to ask, what moved you to write a book for children, and what age children did you have in mind specifically and why?
When I got to Waco, I loved going into the schools and just engaging with the kids and reading to the kids. And at one school, I had a young lady come up to me and say that she didn’t realize that girls could be the police. And then a couple of months later, I went to another school and I had a young lady say, I didn’t realized girls could be police chiefs.
And so that inspired me to move forward with writing my own children’s book and being able to go into our schools locally and read this story to both young boys and young girls, because it talks about the characteristics of police officers as well, but to inspire young girls to consider their future in policing.
You mentioned “Miami Vice” and “Beverly Hills Cop.” You had 28 years in the HPD before taking over as chief in Waco. And as you know, it’s nothing like what they show on the big or small screen.
As you moved up the career ladder, did you have role models in the department? I mean, was there anyone you could look to for guidance or for mentorship and that kind of thing?
So I really didn’t specifically seek out mentorship, but there were ladies in our organization that started to rise through the ranks that inspired me during my career in the Houston Police Department.
And that’s something that I’m looking to change as a female leader in policing – to make sure that I am accessible and engaging with young women in policing to encourage them to climb the ladder to represent us.
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One of the reasons I ask is because you think of the stereotype of policing and it seems like very much a male-dominated profession. And I wonder if that’s real, and if so, how much of a problem that is with policing these days?
It is absolutely real. Females only make up about 3% of chiefs across this country, and we have over 18,000 police agencies across this county.
So that’s why it’s so important for me as a female leader – and as an African American female leader – to encourage young ladies and females to use the skills that they have to rise through the ranks in policing.
Right now, as I’m sure you’re aware, there’s a conversation that’s been growing around the importance of character in this country. And I was struck by a deeper message in your book that character matters, not so much rank or position.
Could you say more about that and why you felt it was so important to include this in a book for kids?
The message that I wanted to portray to kids was that the character that we’re looking for in policing is already inside of them: being kind, being respectful, caring for others – those are the types of individuals that we need in policing.
And it was just my way of saying, hey, keep those great characteristics and continue to explore options in being a police officer, because that’s what we need in our profession.
I have to ask you about the image problem that policing has had in recent years. Where does that come from, as you see it? Is this structural? Is this more about media representation, you know, the selection of images and that kind of thing? Few bad apples on the force? How do you parse that out?
I guess I would parse that out in a number of ways, right? Because police officers do so many great things, day in and day out, that are not reported, that are seen, right, which is why I think it’s so important that as police leaders we start telling our own stories about the things that we do well.
Now every now and then, yes, we’re going to have somebody who creates a bad image for policing and make a bad decision. But what I need people to realize too is that the people that we’re hiring are human beings, and we all make mistakes, right?
And sometimes we don’t catch this character that are in some of the people that make these bad mistakes, and they misrepresent both the police profession and our agencies.
But I try to look at the good, because I look at our agency and I realize that our team does so much good, but that one incident that can happen across the country or it can happen in our own backyard.
I have to realize that people’s perceptions are based on what they’re going to see from that image, which is why it’s so important that we tell all the good stories so that we build that emotional capital in our communities. And when that one bad thing happened, they can give us the benefit of the doubt and not just blanket the whole profession of policing based on that one person’s behavior.
I can remember when I was growing up, the police officer, the beat police person, was always seen as a kind of hero. And I was thinking back to more recent days and, you know, the young generation and the sort of messaging that they’ve been getting.
And I’m curious how you think that may affect future generations. Clearly, you’re thinking about future generations of public servants with writing this book.
Actually, I’m not really concerned that we’re not going to get the character of police officers or that we are not going be able to attract young people who are interested and passionate about serving their communities.
The generation that’s coming up now, I think that when we demonstrate the philosophy that we call here at Waco PD as relational policing, when we’re demonstrating that and they’re seeing that and it’s something that’s a part of who they are and their value system, then it attracts them to want to be a part our agency.
So I’m really not honestly concerned about our image, because I think that we kind of send the message of who we’re looking for and the image of what we want policing to be in our city.
We’ll have more stories from Waco when we broadcast live from the Mayborn Museum at Baylor University on July 1 as part of the Standard’s 10th birthday tour of Texas.
