Courage to Do What Is Right

I am honored to introduce myself as the newest member of the Executive Board of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association. I have always been proud of the work the LVPPA has done throughout my career. Over the years, I have seen the LVPPA show courage by standing up for officers' rights provided through our CBA and NRS. I look forward to continuing that legacy for you, the members.

I was born and raised in North Las Vegas and graduated from Rancho High School. After high school, I briefly worked in construction before being hired by LVMPD in 2016 as a corrections officer. As a corrections officer, I worked multiple shifts in every bureau and also spent time in the Field Services Section and AOST.

While working in Field Services, I saw a clear contrast between two supervisors and the ways they led officers. One supervisor consistently showed courage, stood up for what was right, and had the backs of his officers. The other rarely showed that same courage, often followed direction without independent thought, and frequently found herself in difficult situations. Seeing that contrast taught me how important courageous leadership is to the officers being led. It also motivated me to join AOST and later take a more active role in the LVPPA because I saw that same courage displayed by members of the Executive Board.

Merriam-Webster defines courage as the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty. To be a law enforcement officer, one must be courageous. That courage is not only shown on calls for service; it is also shown in how we lead, how we treat one another, and how we respond to difficult decisions within the department.

That same courage applies to the way we deal with supervisors, peers, and the department as a whole. It takes courage to respectfully disagree when something is wrong, to hold each other accountable when needed, and to admit when we make a mistake so we can learn from it and move forward.

In my experience, the easy path is usually silence. Fear is a normal reaction when someone has to show courage by standing up for what is right. As Mark Twain said, "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear." Staying quiet may avoid conflict in the moment, but it can also allow poor decisions, unfair treatment, and a bad workplace culture to continue. Courage does not mean being disrespectful or confrontational. It means speaking up professionally and honestly when something affects our members, our contract, or the standards we expect from each other.

The best teams I have been part of were built on trust. Officers trusted each other because they knew their peers would tell them the truth, support them when they were right, and challenge them when they were wrong. Those moments are not always public and do not always come with recognition, but they matter. They apply on and off duty because sometimes being a good partner means having tough conversations with partners and supervisors. Often, the quiet decisions to do what is right have the greatest impact on our profession and the people working beside us.

Courage also comes from taking the time to understand policy and our contract. I understand how easy it is to sign off on PowerDMS without fully reading a policy, but as a training officer, I learned that a lack of knowledge and preparation made me less courageous when trying to instruct others on the correct way to do things.

That preparation matters because courage is more likely to be accepted when it comes with a willingness to offer solutions. Anyone can point out a problem, but it takes a stronger kind of courage to identify the issue, understand the facts, and bring forward a reasonable path to fix it. When concerns are presented with professionalism, knowledge, and possible solutions, they are less likely to be viewed as complaining or conflict and more likely to be received as leadership. In our profession, speaking up is most effective when it is backed by preparation because it shows the goal is not to create division but to improve the outcome for our members, our partners, and the department as a whole.

As your newest Executive Board member, I will do my best to carry that courage forward for the members of the LVPPA. I will stand up for what is right, advocate for fairness, and work to continue the legacy of representation that I have respected throughout my career. My goal is to listen, learn, prepare, and act with the courage needed to support our members in a professional and effective way. If we continue to choose courage over silence, preparation over assumption, and unity over division, we can strengthen our association and the profession we proudly serve.