COPLEY TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Copley Township police officer Sarah Shendy was given the 40 Under Forty police award from the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Dallas, Texas on Oct. 17.
Officer Shendy was the only police officer from Ohio, and the only Arab-American officer to receive the award during a ceremony that included 15,000 police officers from around the world.
Officer Shendy was awarded for her consistent effort to improve police, community relations and police recruitment efforts, and told News 5 the training she received during the conference was outstanding.
“It was an overwhelming experience," Shendy said. “I met officers from the Philippines, Korea, Russia, Germany, China, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Dubai. It was an unbelievable experience, the training was top tier, I learned so much.”
Shendy believes continuing to improve officer training is crucial in the evolution of policing, as well as direct community outreach.
“It all starts with leadership and accountability," Shendy said. "We took the oath to protect and serve and treat people with respect and dignity, and a majority of officers do a phenomenal job. I think we will begin to move forward when we work together as one, we cannot continue to move forward and have the us-versus-them mentality.”
“Every single place we are in uniform, it’s all eyes on us, and you are a walking billboard. It’s a message that you’re sending, verbal and more importantly your non-verbal communication. You’re either giving the people around you every single reason to want to join our profession, or your giving them every reason to not be a police officer, and not join this profession," Shendy added.
Officer Shendy has been serving with the Copley Township police department for 14 years and was appointed Director of Ohio’s Office of Law Enforcement Recruitment by Governor Mike DeWine.
Shendy credits Governor DeWine and Copley Township Police Chief Michael Mier with playing a key role in her development as a community policing role model. Shendy believes improving citizen policing awareness is also crucial in our schools and in programs like the Copley Township Citizens Police Academy.
“Schools should have classes or workshops where they do teach young adults and the civilian population how to interact with law enforcement," Shendy said. "We expect them to know this stuff, but where to do people get the majority of their information, bias and stereotypes, a lot of times from TV, from some media outlets, the entertainment business, that’s not how real life works."
Chief Mier agrees policing education and awareness are needed, and said his department is now working with the Copley-Fairlawn School District to create student classes at the high school level.
“It will give folks in the community the opportunity to get a close-up look at what police officers do and what challenges we face daily," Mier said. “To teach kids something about probable cause, something about traffic stops, and to gain greater understanding as to the authority police officers have, but at the same time the responsibility the citizens have."
Meanwhile, Shendy says it's her goal to attract a more diverse group of police cadets to the policing profession.
“I feel so proud of our profession, I feel so proud of being a police officer in the United States," Shendy said. "If you talk about an Arab-American immigrant that came to the United States at the age of 6, and became a U.S. citizen one year before I became a police officer."
“So the conversations that I’m having at schools, colleges, universities, tech schools, I don’t just target the criminal Justice majors. I talk to everybody, because we need a diverse group of professions within law enforcement in order for us to be successful”
