Breaking the mold

Sgt. Shontel Sherwood said she drew more citizen complaints than anyone else on the department during her rookie years with Newport Beach police.

To many, she said, being a woman and being a police officer don’t automatically go together, and she was overcompensating.

It took a talk from a supervisor about her “communication skills” to reassure her that she didn’t have to act like one of the guys to command respect in the field.

“I’m being trained by guys, I’m watching how they perform out in the field, and I’m learning really quickly that when I try to do or say and act the same way they did, the public didn’t respond very well to it,” Sherwood said. “It’s just finding a technique that works for me being a female. They don’t want me to act like a man. I’m not a man, I’m a woman. But I’m doing a man’s job. So it’s taking what I’d learn from these men and tweaking it and using it as a style that was acceptable to the general public but allowed me to still do my job and do it effectively.”

That philosophy has worked. This week she became the first woman in the department’s history to be promoted to sergeant. She was the third female officer ever hired by the department. Four officers were promoted in all Monday, including Dale Johnson who was promoted to captain, Lt. Dennis Birch, who will now oversee the jail, and Sgt. Steve Burdette, a 17-year veteran of the department.

Sherwood’s path wasn’t entirely set when she first joined the force in 1988. She spent five years on patrol followed by three as a traffic investigator, all the while doubling as a girls basketball coach at Newport-Mesa high schools. When her coaching job was phased out, she was left with a choice as an officer: Go the route of her predecessors and either change professions or start a family; or buckle down and prepare for the long haul.

She chose to further her career and became a detective, followed by an assignment as a trainer for new, incoming officers. All the while, she strengthened her resume by volunteering for any and everything that crossed her path.

“She’s very capable. She has just a great all-around work ethic. She’s been working her way to the top of the list,” Lt. Craig Fox said.

Fox said of the many who tested for the position, she placed first. After several interviews with commanders from Newport Beach and other departments with the eight final candidates, again, she was first on the list.

“It’s just another competition for me,” she said.

It’s a competition she knows presents unique challenges for her.

“We just started our 11th female, so there’s a core of us that are really close knit. We talk about this all the time. Even though you can talk to a male supervisor, a male in command around here, and they’re going to tell you everybody’s equal, and everybody’s evaluated equally, well, they’re not,” she said. “If you grab the women in this agency, especially the ones in the street they’ll tell you they’re not evaluated equally. Not by the citizens and not internally. Because, we have to be better.”

She’s not complaining, mind you. The pressure isn’t based necessarily on her gender, but because she’s one of less than a dozen female officers in the department, she said. If she’s not good at what she does, people will notice.

“Say we have 130, 140 male officers here. If you have one slug, nobody knows, nobody cares,” she added. “But if you have 10 women, and you have one slug, then, all women officers are slugs. So if we have a female officer who’s not pulling her weight, then we’re all put in that category. That’s how we feel, so we feel like, ‘OK, we need to be better.’”

If Monday’s promotion is any indication, Sherwood is doing better, and paving the way for others. She said her goal is to make lieutenant, the next highest rank in the department.

Officer Rachel Johnson said Sherwood sets an example.

“We do discuss how we can be positive female role models in law enforcement,” Johnson said. “I know that I try, as a female law enforcement officer, to do the best I can.”

Sherwood’s gender may make it a significant milestone for the department, but for the people within it, she’s just another police officer whose hard work has paid off.

“For any woman in law enforcement, it’s good to see another woman promoted, but not more than any other [person in the department],” Johnson said.

Sherwood stressed that in the end, respect for an officer is based on experience, not gender.

“I think people in general can see who’s brand new, citizens aren’t going to put up with crap from a brand new cop. But if I right now went out in the field and said some of the same things, they’d probably be OK because they’d see I’m a seasoned veteran.”

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.