Monday was Colon’s first official day on the job. She had been sworn in as a full-time Sugarcreek Twp. police officer in a special session held by the Sugarcreek Twp. Trustees Dec. 29. Sugarcreek police Chief Gilbert Flick, who has been on sick leave since November, did the swearing in, and Colon’s husband, Adam Colon, an officer with the Riverside Police Department, pinned her badge on her.
“It was perfect,” Colon said. But, three days later Deputy Hopper was killed. “Not to say it makes a difference, but the deputy was a female and it made my family and friends not from law enforcement automatically worry for my safety. Deputy Hopper’s death had nothing to do with being a female,” she said. “She was shot and killed in the line of duty and she was a brave and admirable person. I can only hope to have the respect that she was given.”
While new to being a police officer, Colon, 30, is not new to police work. She met and married her husband in Hawaii, where as a 21-year-old she had transferred from Indiana University to the University of Hawaii at Manoa to complete her bachelor’s degree in business administration. He was in the U.S. Army in the military police. They have a 13-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter.
She grew up in central Indiana; her husband in Lorain, Ohio, where they moved back to in 2004. They moved to the Dayton area in 2005 after her husband graduated from the police academy. He got a job with the Riverside police in 2006, the same year their daughter was born, and she got a job as a victim advocate with Riverside’s police department. “I soon realized just how important and needed my position was for law enforcement,” she said. Her last day on the job there was Jan. 5.
By the summer of 2009, Colon had started talking with her husband about becoming a police officer. “We spoke many times on the details of the risk and schedule, and to this day he has and will always be my biggest supporter,” she said.
To meet police academy standards for applying, she started fitness training, running trails several times a week. “I started doing pushups and sit-ups and getting in shape,” she said.
She started the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy through Sinclair Community College in January 2010, graduating in June. At the same time she worked full time at Riverside and trained Dayton police officers in domestic violence and victim services.
She was the only student in her class to receive the gold medal for physical fitness based on the Cooper standards.
So why be a cop? “I want to change society’s standards. I want people to feel good about their law enforcement agency,” she said. “I want children to respect and look up to police officers. I want to be viewed as a source of knowledge about the laws and community resources by residents, and I want to make my community better. This can only be done one call at a time,” she said.
For example, she would not write a ticket for a young mother who has no child seat in her car because she has no money to buy one. Instead she would get her in touch with community resources such as the American Automobile Association, which has a program offering free seats for those in need, she said.
Colon tested at the top of the 90 applicants who applied for the job, said Sugarcreek Twp. Administrator Barry Tiffany.
Lesley Stayer, a 10-year veteran on the force, is the department’s only other female officer, he said.
“I think she’ll do a good job,” said Sugarcreek police Capt. James Deaton, assistant police chief.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2341 or kullmer@ DaytonDailyNews.com.
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