Before there was the TV show “CSI,” Pat Bazemore ’96 wanted to be a crime scene investigator. She graduated from Wake Technical Community College with an associate’s degree in criminal justice. But before she could become a crime scene investigator, she had to work for at least two years as a police officer. So she joined the Town of Cary Police Department in 1986 as a patrol officer and became the first woman with the town to finish at the top of her academy.
Her intention? “Work two years as an officer and then move on to my dream job,” she says.
She had more DUI arrests than anyone else in the Cary Police Department her first year. Her third year, she helped pilot the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program in Wake County. She went on to become the first woman with the Cary Police Department to be promoted to sergeant, and then to lieutenant, and then to captain and major. She became the town’s first deputy police chief in 2003.
Five years later, she was named the town’s police chief, becoming the first woman to hold the position. “I don’t know if I ever made that decision to not become a crime scene investigator and to stay with law enforcement,” she says. “I just never made the decision to leave.”
Law enforcement was not what she imagined, she says. Yes, it’s about enforcing laws, making arrests, writing traffic tickets, and fighting crime. But more than that, “Law enforcement is truly about serving others,” she says. “You take an oath to serve and to protect; about 20 percent of the job is protecting and enforcing and about 80 percent of the job is serving.
“It’s a service profession,” she says, “and I believe that is one of my absolute strengths. Serving others — that’s what I fell in love with.”
Bazemore, who completed her Bachelor of Applied Science in Criminal Justice through Campbell University’s Research Triangle Park campus, talked to Campbell.edu about what makes law enforcement a service profession, what drew her to criminal justice, and her approach to leadership. The following is a condensed and edited transcript.
What interested you about criminal justice?
When I first started at Wake Tech, I worked in Raleigh at a hotel that had a restaurant in it. We had off-duties police officers who would standby as we closed every night and walk us to our cars. Over the five years that I worked there, I’d listen to the stories they’d tell me. Once time, there was a horrible crime scene on the same block as the hotel. I listened to the officers’ talk about how they were able to solve that murder by the information they got from the crime scene. It really intrigued me. The officers were constantly encouraging me to become an officer, too.
Why do you think that was?
One of the gentlemen said I always found the best in every situation and that no matter what happened I never felt defeated. He said he was absolutely sure I would make it in law enforcement because I had the right attitude for it.
Where did that attitude come from?
One of the most influential people in my life was my grandmother. No matter what I wanted to do, she never said you can’t do that or you shouldn’t do that. She was always encouraging me and would say, “You’re strong enough. You’re smart enough. Whatever you want to do, you can do it.” I believed her.
Did you ever imagine that one day you would be a police chief?
Never. Even when I took the position as deputy chief, my goal was to not become the police chief someday. People would say, “You’re going to be the next police chief,” and I’d entertain the thought, but I didn’t come to work every day to become a police chief. But there were opportunities that presented themselves, and sometimes you create your own opportunities. I think I was also blessed to work for police chiefs who were tough but fair and who saw things in me that I didn’t even see in myself.
Like what?
When I was first promoted to sergeant, the chief at the time, Chief Dave Fortson, told me that the reason he was promoting me was for the same the reasons why he didn’t even care for me the first time he met me. He probably said it a much nicer way, but that was the gist. He was a very introverted person, and I was very extroverted and outspoken. I’m one of those people that if I can understand why I’m doing something, even if I don’t like doing it, I’ll do it. If you tell me to do something and I’m doing it just because you said so, I’ll do it but I don’t know if I’ll give it a 110 percent. I thought he initially thought I was challenging him. People don’t ask the police chief, “Why are you doing this?” I could see how maybe some could see me as being defiant, though that wasn’t my intention.
How does that affect your leadership and approach to your role as the police chief?
I don’t see questions as a challenge. I have an open-door policy. Everyone knows that if you want to know why we’re doing something or if you don’t understand something, ask me. If I can’t explain why we’re doing something, we probably need to reevaluate if we should be doing it anyway. I encourage officers to approach me and ask me questions. I enjoy it, and I think it makes us a better department if we’re always asking why we’re doing what we’re doing.
What have been your priorities as the police chief?
Cary has a reputation for being one of the safest places to live in the U.S, and we are. But, when I started in the position, people thought nothing happened in Cary. So people weren’t doing what they could do to prevent crime. People would leave their cars and houses unlocked and their garage doors open. If people don’t think there’s any crime, people won’t take the necessary steps to protect themselves. So working with the town manager’s office and the public information office, we discussed how to get the message out there that there is crime in Cary and there were things we all could do to help keep our community safe. We started putting out crime alerts. People were like, “So much is going on in Cary now.” But it wasn’t that more was going on; it was just that we were telling people about it for the first time. We felt an informed community would be a safer community.
Also, when I first came in as police chief, it was obvious Cary was starting to change. I brought our entire command staff together and asked, “How can we be out in the public more, and how can we involve our community in what we do every day when serving them?” We came up with what we call GeoPolicing. We geographically-based our officers and split our town into three distinct areas. We also pushed getting out into the community and focusing on community needs and community education.
What are some moments from your career that stand out?
One night driving down a road in Cary I saw a young lady carrying a child on her hip. I saw earlier that a car had broken down, and I thought that was probably her car. I stopped to help her. She said she would never gotten in the car if I had been a male officer. She talked to me about her situation. I was able to reach out later to her and provide resources that could help her get to a better place in life. She took advantage of some of those resources. I didn’t just give her a ride that night; I helped her down the road.
Also, there was this teenage girl who ran away from home all the time. She lived in the area where I worked, and every time she ran away, I would get called. It happened over and over again. When I’d pick her up, we would sit and talk about the decisions she was making. When she was 24, she showed up at the police department with her daughters. She said, “I knew I worried you running away all the time. But if you ever noticed, I ran away when you were on duty, because I wanted someone to talk to. I attribute where I am today in life to you helping me stay on the right path.”
What’s the biggest challenge you face?
I started the DARE pilot program in Wake County. I did that for two years. Working in elementary schools with those children is the hardest job I have ever done. I know that sounds crazy, but those children will pull on every heart string you’ve ever had.
As police chief, personnel issues are always the toughest thing I have to deal with. I like to believe people are inherently good, but we all mess up.
How do you deal with those issues?
I think the most important job I do is hiring the right people. I interview every person who comes to work here. I want them to understand our culture — not just the police department but the Town of Cary as a whole. We are not just about providing good service or great service, but about providing exemplary service.
I also let them know what our expectations are. Not everyone can or wants to work for the Cary Police Department when they know the expectations. I’m OK with that.
What are looking for in the people you hire?
As a police officer you have to be a compassionate person, you have to have the mentality or the heart to be a servant, you have to be willing to learn and to be open-minded, and you have to be professional and be committed to providing the best service possible. We have to hire people who are ethical and honest and who have values that are compatible to the values that we have as an organization.
What are those values?
Our goal is to provide exemplary service in every situation we encounter. I believe in almost every situation, you can treat people with dignity and respect, even when you’re arresting them. There are situations that you are going into where you have to deal with something, but once you have dealt with it, you can still teat the person with dignity and respect. I always tell people if they treat whoever they are dealing with the way you would want an officer to treat one of your family members, then things are not going to go wrong.
You’ve been the first woman to hold a number of positions with the Cary Police Department: sergeant, lieutenant, captain, major, and chief. What does being the first woman to achieve these positions mean to you?
When I came to Cary in 1986, there were two other female officers. At that time, the average length of career for women in the field was five years. So by the time women reached a point in their career where they would start to get promoted, women were leaving. The changing times were advantageous to me, and I’ve been incredibly blessed to have had the opportunities I’ve had to work at Cary.
What keeps you going day in and day out?
I love the Town of Cary, I love this community, and I love the folks I work with. We are always looking for ways to do thing better. I think we have been on the right road for a very long time, but if we’re on the right road and stay there, we are going to get run over. We need to always be looking for ways we can take the next step and not get left behind. Technology, for example, is constantly changing. That’s what has changed in law enforcement more than anything else, and it has changed the way we do our jobs. We have to stay in front of criminals. I’m always trying to looking for ways we can do better and always be in the forefront in law enforcement. That keeps me excited and keeps me focused.
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- Patricia “Pat” Holland Bazemore ’96
- Title: Chief of Police, Town of Cary Police Department
- Education: Bazemore received her Associate’s Degree in Criminal Justice from Wake Technical Community College, her Bachelor of Applied Science in Criminal Justice from Campbell University, and her Master of Business Administration from Pfeiffer University. She has also participated in advanced law enforcement training programs with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Quantico, Virginia, with the School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill, and with North Carolina State University.
- Experience: Bazemore joined the Town of Cary Police Department in 1986 as a patrol officer. She went on to become the department’s first female sergeant, first female lieutenant, first female captain, first female major, and first deputy chief. She twice served as the department’s interim police chief before being named the permanent police chief in 2008.
- Why I chose Campbell: I was looking for a program where I could complete my bachelor’s degree. At a staff meeting one evening, they brought folks in from Campbell to talk us. They told us about the extended campus at RTP. They talked to us one week, and the next week I was enrolled and going to class. Campbell has done a phenomenal job of making education available to people who are working.
- A professor who made a big impression: Esther Kelly, who taught psychology classes. Through her classes, I learned more about who I was and who I wasn’t than any other education I received. I think in order for us to be successful in life we have to know who we are. Her psychology classes helped me to understand where I was and where I wanted to go and how I wanted to get there. She was phenomenal professor.
- On working with Campbell graduates: Our guys here do a phenomenal job. I can’t even believe the level of service our officers provide. I get letters of commendations all the time, and it blows my mind. I’m blessed to work with amazing men and women — quite a few who are Campbell graduates.
- My advice to criminal justice students:Do you have the heart to do the job? If you don’t have a heart to serve others and if you’re not compassionate, you can do the job, but it won’t be rewarding to you. I tell our folks all the time, “People don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you personally care about them.” Law enforcement is truly about serving others. It’s a service profession.
- Why I’m Campbell Proud: I’ve always loved the value system that Campbell has for education and the way they treat the students. It’s just not about a book education; it’s about a personal education. I had known about Campbell for many, many years and had friends who graduated from Campbell. But to be able to go to Campbell and graduate from there and to be able to claim my hump is awesome.