Pioneer Betsy Brantner Smith (photos courtesy Betsy Brantner Smith)
By Dr. Richard Weinblatt, The Cop Doc
Betsy Brantner Smith started in law enforcement some three decades ago, although you wouldn't think so given the vitality and energy she brings to her endeavors. And while women in policing have come a long way during the years she discharged the duties of a demanding profession, the woman who retired a year ago at the rank of sergeant, enjoyed the challenges even back then and excelled in spite of them.
"I couldn't believe that they paid me to do this," said Brantner Smith, otherwise known as The Sarge, recently on The Cop Doc radio show. "I loved being a police officer.
Female Forces
Known to many for her starring role in The Biography Channel's unscripted police reality show "Female Forces" (http://www.biography.com/female-forces/), Brantner Smith has gotten used to her high profile, jet-setting life signing autographs. The former Naperville, IL, Police sergeant has turned her part-time speaking, teaching, and writing stints into a full-time, high profile gig.
"People recognize me and I think the show helped women, and men, see female officers in a positive way," Brantner Smith said. "It's important not to lump all of the women on the show together. While we all enjoyed it, we got different things out of our participation."
Roy Bedard, a long-time police officer himself, produced "Female Forces" and has worked with Brantner Smith on a variety of projects. The police trainer and man behind RRB Systems said that Brantner Smith is a great officer and he enjoyed working with her. "Female officers can be feminine and still be great warriors," Bedard said. "That's one of the great qualities that Betsy has. She can fight."
Brantner Smith said that she tells women who attend her well-respected Caliber Press Street Survival Seminar for Women, where she is the lead instructor, that they can be a professional law enforcer and still be woman. "They don't have to sacrifice their femininity," she explained detailing how many young women entering into the field think they have to be tougher than the men. "What I tell them is we're not men. We are women and that is ok."
The Sarge, Betsy Brantner Smith, in her uniform days.
The Street Survival Seminar for Women lead instructor duties are but one way she has parlayed her talents into a cottage industry of law enforcement expertise. She has become synonymous with the breaking of expectations as she crashed through the glass ceiling of law enforcement.
The Sarge's Career
Her career as a sworn law enforcer has had a varied path and that's given her much to draw from as she dispenses wisdom to a new generation of serving and aspiring law enforcers. Among her titles in additin to patrol officer: K-9 unit supervisor, field training sergeant, receruitment team sergeant, crowd control and bike patrol coordinator, and supervisor of the community education and crime prevention unit.
Each slot brought with it unique challenges and learning opportunities that helped Brantner Smith to spread her wings. Some colleagues embraced her presence, while others didn't. Still others went out of their way to sabatoge her career.
"I got write ups that we laugh about now, but back then were hard. One was for standing with my legs too far apart for a woman," Brantner Smith recalled. Women are biologically different and it's hard for us not to cry." She said that she struggled at times not to cry in front of the guys.
Brantner Smith credits a progressive police chief, long since passed away, who was ahead of his time for mentoring and encouraging her in her career. Mentors are an important part of the assimilation and success of women in policing, according to Brantner Smith.
The Sarge has expanded beyond just her squad of officers and now finds herself in the role of coach for women all across the United States. She meets many of them in her courses or through her writings. "Women have a moral duty to mentor other women and help them to be successful," she said.
"Women were often thought of as entering the business just to find themselves a husband," she added. "She explained that many officers end up marrying other law enforcers, or people in the helping professions such as nurses. Relationships suffer for many women due to the pressures of the job.
Dave Smith, also known as "Buck Savage," with Betsy Brantner Smith
Buck Savage
Marriage is yet another area where Brantner Smith has excelled, although she conceds it took her sometime to find the right relationship. Dave Smith, a retired Arizona Highway Patrol lieutenant who is well-known for his creation in 1980 of the "J.D. Buck Savage" police training video character, is the male half of a unique partnership. Together they operate the Chicago area based Dave Smith & Associates. Smith, an instructor for Caliber Press Street Survival, as well as a columnist for PoliceOne.com and Police Magazine, is quick to give credit and attention to the training acumen of his wife.
On the other hand, as you would hope for in a symbiotic relationship like marriage, Betsy Brantner Smith is quick to toot the horn of Buck Savage. In that supportive vein, she enthusiastically encouraged the mention of Smith's recently authored book, "In My Sights."
As for Branter Smith and her penning of wisdom from the police training realm, she too keeps busy with a computer never far from her fingertips. She has regular columns for PoliceOne.com and PoliceLink.com. It seems that much of her writing ability stems, like a lot of writers, from her affinity for reading. "I tell women all the time that they need to read. In our training courses, we distribute a reading list." A favorite read of hers right now that she's encouraging her legions of followers to buy: Michael Gurian's "Leadership and the Sexes."
Brantner Smith may have retired a year ago after 29 years of serving her community, but the service mentality and it's energetic delivery hasn't stopped. These days, the Sarge's beat has been expanded across all jurisdictional boundaries and is geared towards assisting the aspirations, as well as the very survival, of law enforcement learners.
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