law

BY OLIVIA GARDNER, CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The expectation for law enforcement officers is to be fearless, tough and resilient. Yet, once their shifts end, they are regular people with lives of their own.

Tracy Harbaugh Drager, Kammy Knox and Renae Rice are Zetas, moms, wives, lawyers and teachers. They are also police officers with a passion for serving.

Tracy Harbaugh Drager is a police sergeant in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a 1996 initiate of Delta Pi Chapter (Eastern New Mexico University.) During her first week in uniform, she was involved in a mass shooting. A perpetrator set out to kill as many law enforcement officers as possible and shot four of her fellow first responders. “Afterwards, I spoke with my parents, and they asked if I still wanted to do this,” Tracy says. “The answer was a resounding yes.”

All Tracy wanted to do at that moment was make the community safer and she knew she was finally able to do that. But, along with the need to protect others came a constant threat to her own wellbeing. “I’m a single mother who works the night shift,” she says. “Every evening I get ready for work, hug my family good night and do everything I can to ensure I get home safe in the morning for them.”

Kammy Knox is a police officer in Alexandria, Virginia, and a 1990 initiate of Zeta Nu Chapter (Lock Haven University). Also a single mother, Kammy knows the fear of Tracy’s day-to-day routine. “It’s hard doing this job and being a single parent,” says Kammy. “People want to hurt you and potentially your family because of the job you’ve done.”

Despite the danger and stress, both women find the role rewarding.

“I have the opportunity to rescue children from abusive homes, get women out of abusive relationships and get drunk drivers off the road,” Tracy says.

“People come up to me years after I worked their case and thank me for the job I did,” Kammy says. “That’s why I do what I do.”

The job can take a toll on first responders’ mental health, though. Not long after Kammy joined the department, she started having a repeating nightmare. The dream was always a routine traffic stop. She would pull the person over, get out of her car and approach the other vehicle. “As I walked closer, the person in the other car would start shooting at me,” Kammy says. “I would try to pull my gun out but would never be able to get it out of the holster, and that’s when I would wake up.”

For years, she internalized her worries until finally she chose to see a therapist. “It was the best thing I ever did, for me and my family,” Kammy says. “It helped me deal with the things I was compartmentalizing and also learn how to decompress my thoughts.”

Renae Rice, a 1992 initiate of Delta Theta Chapter (Ohio Northern University) is a retired law enforcement supervisor. She also emphasizes making mental health a priority. “The things we see and experience are often extremely heavy and easy to internalize,” Renae says. “If a department doesn’t suggest or offer counseling after a traumatic event, it is important you take the time to speak to someone.” my head to my boss to try and get a different answer,” Renae recalls. “It was a main issue of disrespect.”

The mental-health challenges notwithstanding, Renae’s career was full of ground-breaking firsts that challenged the status-quo. After two years as an Ohio Highway Patrol officer, she joined the Dublin, Ohio, Police Department in 1999. There, she became the first woman supervisor as corporal, the first female sergeant and the first female to retire with full service in May 2021.

Kammy was fortunate to receive constant support from male coworkers. “The real problem for me has been male victims and perpetrators,” Kammy says. “They will refuse to talk to me, but as soon as a male officer asks them, they will spill all the details.”

Despite the challenges, these officers see their gender as a superpower. “Many times, victims would rather speak to a woman officer,” Kammy says. “We are here to listen and serve the community. Being a woman can often assist with that.”