Amplify Her Voice: Linday Long
KNOW Book + Tribe kicked off a brand new series called Amplify Her Voice. It is a storytelling series focused on amplifying the voices of our Black female business leaders and members. Each day we will be featuring one new KNOW member and they will be sharing their stories and advice.
Meet Lindsay Long, Police Officer for Tempe Police Department
Lindsay is one of our front line heroes. She began her career as a police officer in Norcross, Georgia at the Gwinnett County Police Department before transferring to the Tempe, Arizona department. She shares that one of the things she loves most about the work of a police officer is that she is able to communicate with citizens and make a difference in the community. We are so thankful she was able to take the time and share with KNOW Tribe.
Learn about what Lindsay is doing to help female police officers in her department
watch her video below
Takeaways from Lindsay:
1. Understanding the importance of communication. “I understand the importance of communication because that’s pretty much what you do all day – communicate with people, whether it’s verbal or non-verbal. As human beings we want to be heard, we want to be validated, we want to be seen.”
2. The many hats of a police officer “You have to wear a lot of hats as a police officer when you’re out dealing with somebody. Because a lot of times, you’re dealing with that person on the worst day of their life, you have to be a friend, you have to be a chaplain, you have to be a counselor, you have to be a sibling, you have to be the authority figure, you have to be a lot of different things. I like it because I walk away from it like, wow, that’s not what I expected. Or, the person I just dealt with just totally blew my mind, because I had already made a snap judgment about this person, which many of us do.”
3. How joining ROTC shaped her. “ROTC really brought me out of my shell. I love structure. I love the activities. I love the camaraderie that we had. The Major over that particular Junior ROTC Unit, she brought out in me what I didn’t know was there. I was afraid of public speaking and now it’s something that I really enjoy.”
What Lindsay would tell her younger self: “Be present, soak it all in, because time moves so fast. The world we live in… We live in this instant gratification, social media driven world. You can spend so much time in your phone and worrying about what people think about you online, you’re missing everything that’s going on out here. Life is a beautiful thing, you want to experience it and not just through taking pictures and posting things to your story, but actually experiencing life.“
Lindsay Long is featured in KNOW Phoenix Volume 2 on page 116.