Lizbeth Ledesma-Suarez

Q: What is your full name and current profession

A: I am Chelsey Payne, and I currently teach the law and public safety career pathway at Montrose High School. Prior to that, I was a police officer for the Montrose Police Department.

Q: Why were you interested in policing and how did you choose that career?

Well, it's gonna sound super cheesy, um, but, you know, the same reason everyone gets into it, right?

I wanted to help people, and I wanted to make, like directly, make my community a safer place for my child to grow up in. And I felt that becoming a police officer with Montrose Police Department was the best way for me to go about that.

What are some crucial soft skills to have in order to be an individual working in law enforcement?

I think one of the most important soft skills that a person can have, um, working on law enforcement is emotional intelligence. Not only to, like, deal with, you know, obviously you're gonna be encountering people on the absolute worst day of their life, so you need to understand and have that emotional intelligence enough, how to have that interaction with them. You know, but also to be able to work as a team efficiently, um, because I think someone of high emotional intelligence makes a great team member and great teammate.

Do you think networking skills are important?

Networking skills in law enforcement are important because you never know when, you know, maybe you're starting at an agency and you might not end up at that agency. So it's good to know, if you could maybe get along at another agency, maybe you like their culture, what they do, what they stand for, what they represent. So that's always a good thing.

The second part about networking is crime is not just localized to one agency, right? So it's important to have contacts at various places across the state. To reach out and be like, hey, like, we've been dealing with this individual, like, you know, I see that they have a background from your jurisdiction. Like, what can you tell me about this person? So it's good to have that like networking for crime information sharing that might not necessarily be, um, spelled out in reports that you have access to. And you might not even have access to other jurisdictions' reports if it's like on the other side of the state. So it's good that way. it's also good to be able to, you know, know about maybe trainings that are even going on at other agencies. So, if you're like, hey, you know, or reach out to some people that you knew, like, hey, we're hosting some specific interview and interrogation course at our agency, if you want to spread the word to the people that you work with, they can come down and, you know, get registered for that too.

So networking, you know, is very multifaceted and it's important in law enforcement.

Q: What do you think is the best way for a student to develop these skills?

A: I think interacting, like personal interaction with peers.

Um, as a as a training officer, some of the things that I saw from like our younger officers coming in was not that they, I am not going to say that they didn't have emotional intelligence, but I think that just having that, like, FaceTime one-on-one interaction with other human beings, sometimes was a little, like, hard for them, because I hate to say it, but a lot of your generation spends a lot of time communicating with each other, like this, right? So having that, like, ability to carry on a conversation with people in general and having those skills.

So I think that's one of the best ways for that.

Second best way, um, while you're in school, especially, you know, soft skills, yes, but other skills like showing up on time. Like making sure that you're diligent about the quality of work that you're putting into everything that you do. Making sure that you are holding other people accountable in class, like if there's people who are like screwing around. Like, I know it's kind of hard sometimes with like that peer interaction, but, like, keeping each other accountable in that way.

Q: What did you like most about being a police officer, and what did you like least about being a police officer?

The thing that I liked, liked most, you know, was helping people. Being able to recover someone's stolen property or being able to get that domestic violence victim to a safe place.

Maybe sometimes it's hard, but like removing a child from a situation that's not good for them, you know, doing CPR on someone and saving their life.

Like, all of those things that, like, are rewarding for an individual, that you know, you know you're doing something that's directly, like, helping someone's life.

Um, the thing that I disliked most about being a police officer was. I mean, aside from, like, the obvious, like, having to work holidays, you know, having to work, like, 18 hour shifts sometimes, and like, it's necessary. It doesn't mean that it's fun. You know, all of the reports that you have to write, because every contact that you have with someone, like you have to write about it. So you do a lot of writing.

Do you think of yourself as a role model?

You know, I never really like have, but I guess, Maybe, maybe there's someone who's like, hey, Ms. Payne, like, did some cool things in her career and, like, I want to, I want that adventure.

So, yeah, I guess maybe, and hopefully it's, you know, positive stuff that they're taking away.

Q: How important do you think past experiences are?

To be in law enforcement. I think it is, it is important. But I don't necessarily think that there is, like there's some things that can help. But I think the biggest thing that someone can do is just get that face-time with people, doing customer service with people, being able to talk to people again, those emotional intelligence. And I think that, you know, young people develop and hone that, the more out and about in the world they are. And the more diverse people and backgrounds that they're working with, having to communicate with. If you get out of high school and you go to college and or maybe you don't go to college, but maybe you go and you work in dispatch or you work in animal control. Obviously, some of those like harder skills from those jobs are going to transfer, and that's gonna be helpful. But I think, ultimately, at the end of the day, like just, and, and also in those jobs too, like you are, you're learning the hard skills, but you're also learning laws.

You're learning how to de-escalate people in conflict. You know, so you're learning a lot of those skills.I think those are good, but I've also seen former teachers come in and then kill it. I've seen, you know, people who were bartenders come in and do an absolute great job because they're used to being able to just talk to people like their people. And I think that makes a really great police officer.

So, long story short, any type of diverse career background is great as long as you, like, can apply those skills to the job.

Q: Do you think adults have a hard time connecting with kids?

Yeah, I do.I don't think that it's like a millennial versus Gen Z thing.I think that's just been like a tale as old as time, right?Like, for us, it was our boomer parents trying to connect to the millennials with our, like, violent video games. And I just, I think that there's always gonna be that disconnect between the older generation and the younger generation. And when you guys are in our adult shoes, you're going to have a hard time with whatever it is, gen Eles are, whatever it is, right? Because that's just like, you get to a certain and you're like, ah, kids these days, kids these days, and that's just gonna be continuing forever. I don't see the, you know, there's some adults who try and make an effort to like learn the skibidi lingo and whatever, you know, to try and connect.

Yeah, I just think that that's just going to be a tale as all this time.

Q: If you could give me one piece of career advice that you thought could really help me, what would it be?

Say yes to opportunities, which I know you already are doing, but keep doing it. Because those opportunities, like, Man, they open so many doors and it could lead you to something you're like, I didn't even ever think that this is a place that I would end up in. But you wouldn't have known unless you didn't say yes to that opportunity. So, just keep taking as much training, opportunities, um, chances to learn more. And I, I do think that that's one thing, one unique thing, not one, not the only one, but one of, I think the most unique things about you, Lizbeth, is that that's exactly what you're doing. So keep doing it, because I don't think I've seen anyone your age who's as willing to like go try new things and willing to like go learn, you know, about the things that you're interested in and passionate in and trying to like learn as much as you can now to go take that and be like a super badass adult.

So good job to you.

Thank you.