Stepping out of the limelight

From breaking down barriers for women to getting information to the public, Lucy Crockett dedicated her career to serving communities. And after more than six years as the public affairs officer at the Wilmington Police Department, Crockett retired in June to swap her busy work schedule for some rest and relaxation.

 

WILMA sat down with her to learn more about how she came to Wilmington and her plans for retirement.

 

With an English literature degree from Duke University and a master’s in education and guidance counseling from the University of Virginia, Crockett knew she was a strong communicator. What she didn’t expect was finding a passion for local government and law enforcement.

 

 

On a professional level, the most rewarding part of my career has been being involved in the level of government that I believe has the most direct effect on people’s lives.

 

Personally, the most rewarding aspect was having the opportunity to be behind the front line in a profession I feel is full of courage and compassion. I have tremendous respect for the people who do their best in law enforcement.”

 

As police spokeswoman, Crockett was the public face of each police department she worked for and was responsible for providing information about crimes and disasters whenever they struck. Crockett said her career as a communicator changed as social media and the Internet became more popular and demand for information increased.

 

“If you think about the decades in which I’ve done the work, we’ve gone from being covered mostly by mainstream media back in the 80s and a news cycle that was very short.

 

Now we have citizen journalists, purveyors of information, and mainstream media trying to push out product through the Internet.

 

That news cycle has changed in the six and half years I’ve been here. The first year I was here, we had a major crisis that broke around 11:10 at night, and all the news stations had shut down. We had no cameras, no coverage. And we had the option to tell the media what had happened between then and the next morning – no Twitter, no Internet. Just think how that’s changed.

 

Seeing how the public sector goes forward in meeting and countering that demand for information will be interesting to watch.”

 

Crockett’s career in local government started in human resources for the city of Alexandria, Virginia in the early 1980s. In that role she worked closely with the city’s police chief to reduce institutional barriers for women on the force. Crockett continued advocating for women throughout her career.

 

“Equal employment was starting to be a major force in how we thought about who got jobs and how they qualified. I was sent to the police department in Alexandria to help them diversify their workforce because they just weren’t hiring any women.

 

It had to do in large part with bias in the interviewing process. The people who were doing selecting, sometimes even women, couldn’t envision women doing the job because there were no role models.

 

There were allegedly spouses of some male officers who said they did not want women in those roles working beside their husbands. And there were physical performance measures that had not ever been validated. They had what we called ‘face validity.’ You could see how it might be related to the actual job, but it had the effect of eliminating women from consideration.

 

For example, we had police cruisers that were so big that women of smaller sizes wouldn’t be able to reach the pedals. Well, should we not be able to be police officers when the equipment doesn’t fit our bodies? No, the other thing needs to happen where the department needs to look for vehicles that are more flexible for fitting whatever size the police officer is.”

 

Crockett eventually became the Alexandria police department’s spokeswoman, finding her niche in law enforcement.

 

“Believe me, I never would have thought of anything related to law enforcement as the career path for me. I never did have the physical courage of thinking of becoming a police officer, but I did love being on the front line of that work. 

 

So when the police chief offered me a job as their full-time public information officer, I took it. I loved it and felt it was more exciting than anything I could have chosen for myself initially. I loved being behind the scenes in that type of organization, and I came to find out that police officers are involved in issues and crises day in and day out that most of the rest of us don’t want to think about, things we don’t even want to know about, really. I came very much to admire those who are doing their best, the courageous people who also have compassion, and I feel very honored to be in that role as spokesperson for the department.”

 

Crockett continued her career as a spokeswoman working in a Fort Lauderdale-area police department for seven years. When an opportunity developed in Wilmington, Crockett applied to the city she had always wanted to work.

 

“Sometime when I was home on Christmas vacation, I drug my parents to Wilmington, and we had coffee somewhere on Front Street and went up the coast to Kure Beach.

I just kept thinking, ‘This would be a great place to be.’ So years later, when the opportunity to work in Wilmington came up, I just jumped at it. Now my plan is to stay here, at least for the short term. I sort of feel like this is my home.”

 

Now Wilmington is where Crockett will enjoy retirement while Linda Rawley succeeds her at the police department. Crockett plans to pursue her many hobbies and volunteer positions, including those at the Red Cross and Adopt an Angel.

 

“I’ve had a couple of watershed moments of great change, and this year has been another one for me. This will be a year I remember as one with big changes where I’ve had to reevaluate my priorities.

 

I have lots of interests. I’ve never lost my interest in library science. I bought a ukulele I want to learn to play. I have a yard I don’t really know how to take care of. I don’t think it will be long before I feel a little bored and think ‘OK, what do I want to do next?’”

 

Women in blue

As of July, there were forty-two women working for the Wilmington Police Department and 204 men, according to city figures. Current police spokeswoman Linda Rawley says the department has added its first female forensic chemist, K-9 officer, flight technician, and police attorney.