Heather (Veteran Police Officer)

Now, if we want to talk what happened with ICE in Minnesota, what I can say is that in New Jersey, we're not supposed to shoot at moving vehicles unless we have no other avenue of escape, right?

Underneath the Constitution, underneath the Fourth Amendment, when we place somebody under arrest or we're holding onto them and they're in our custody, it's our job to make sure that they're okay, regardless of whether or not they're a good person or a bad person or they've made bad decisions.

It's our responsibility.

Thank you very much.

So I thought it was a great experience.

Afterwards, walking away, there were aspects of it that were a little intimidating to me just because I'm like, I wonder if I got that point across the right way or whether or not it seemed as though, you know, our conversation flowed enough where it seemed like it was almost as if him and I really agreed on a lot of things, just different perspective wise.

No, I don't think it did surprise me.

I think just because of the nature of the work that I do, that I generally can find a common ground with people.

And, you know, he and I have the same value system as far as God and family and things like that.

We just we've made different choices in life.

And, you know, his perspective is one way and mine is the other.

But I think we did find some common ground.

Yeah, I mean, I've been a cop for 22 years and I've worked in areas where that kind of conversation has to happen, right?

And, you know, I've gone back to school.

I have, you know, a doctorate in higher education.

I teach across the country.

I get to really talk to a lot of people in this profession and outside of this profession.

But I think because of things that I've gone through in my own life personally and the people that have impacted me, whether it's someone like Michael or somebody who is maybe a victim or

it's just really taught me to have an empathetic approach and understand that while my experience is my experience, that's not the same for everybody.

And so to always try to be open-minded, which has really helped me in my profession of law enforcement.