It didn’t take Patricia Walsh long to realize she was in the right line of work.
Walsh says she remembers her first day as a Chicago police officer “like it was yesterday.”
It was 1986, and she was a probationary police officer working with a field training officer. It was her first night on the street and her first assignment out of roll call.
“We got a call, shots fired,” she says. “We got there and the person was still shooting. I wanted to run to it. ‘I can handle this.’ It was an epiphany.” She realized, she says, how much she wanted to help those people.
Since that day, Walsh, 57, steadily climbed through the ranks of the Chicago Police Department. In November 2013 she became Deputy Chief, Bureau of Patrol, Area South, the highest-ranking female in the department.
Her CPD career will end June 15 when she retires from the department. The following day she becomes head of security at Chicago State University.
“It was a really hard decision because I’ve been (a police officer) 29 years,” she says. “It’s been a big part of my life, I enjoy it, but this opportunity came up. I reached my full pension benefit at 29 years and a day, so I’m moving on.”
She leaves behind quite a resume. She has been a detective, a sergeant (in the office of the superintendent, the organized crime unit, and in the detective, traffic and patrol divisions), a lieutenant (in the detective division’s violent crimes and special victims unit) and a commander (in the patrol and detective divisions). As deputy chief for Area South, one of three areas in the city, her territory encompassed five of the toughest districts in Chicago — South Chicago, Calumet, Gresham, Englewood and Morgan Park.
Born in Chicago, Walsh grew up in what is now called North Lawndale. “It was a very economically challenged neighborhood; we were a middle-class family,” she says.
When she was about 16, the family moved to East 89th Street and South Paxton Avenue. She attended the University of Chicago and graduated with a degree in sociology, then went to work at Boise Cascade, a Fortune 500 company located in Indiana, as a liaison between sales and production.
“It was a corporate job, a great job, but I didn’t feel a purpose,” she says.
The business world’s loss turned out to be Chicago’s gain.
The mother of two sons, one at Marquette University and one just graduated from Brother Rice High School, Walsh and her husband, David, a real estate broker, live in Beverly. She recently discussed her life in and out of her office. This is an edited transcript of the conversation.
Q: How did you get into law enforcement?
A: My mom worked for the Chicago Public Library. In those days when the police opened applications they’d send them to the libraries. So my mom would see them. “Why don’t you apply?” Five years after I took the police test they called. (In Indiana), I missed the city, my friends, I missed having a support system. So after five years I entered the police academy.
Q: Was it what you expected?
A: It was a nice fit. I was surprised at the level of professionalism. … The community I grew up in did not trust the police. It was the community of the Marquette 10. (Walsh was referring to 10 Marquette District officers who were convicted in 1982 of taking bribes to allow drug dealing on the West Side.)
Q: How many officers are under your command?
A: Last time I counted about 1,700.
Q: What about at Chicago State?
A: (Laughs) It’s going way down.
Q: What were your biggest challenges as deputy chief, and have they changed over the years?
A: I think the challenge is basically the same: safety. The current challenges deal with current issues in society. As the issues change we have to adapt, but our basic job is security. I think (today) there is a bigger community component. We realize we have to do our jobs with partnerships. There aren’t police problems, they’re community problems, and we have to work together.
Q: As you leave, what are your favorite memories?
A: I was in the detective division for 17 years. I really enjoyed that experience because I like to figure things out, I like to find the story, learn the story, and that’s what you do in the detective division. When I was a detective I worked sex crimes, homicide and robbery. Mostly sex crimes. Those are really difficult investigations, but I liked the process of finding out what happened and finding justice. It was very fulfilling.
Q: You probably helped a lot of people.
A: People remember. It doesn’t happen all the time, but sometimes I’ll be in a neighborhood and someone will come up to me. “Man, you helped me when my brother died.” I don’t remember, but they remember. It gives me a good feeling.
Q: People are looking at police differently these days. What do you do with your people in light of this, of them being under the microscope today?
A: I always stress professionalism. The last two years we have had procedural justice and police legitimacy training. It’s like sensitivity training, and more than 11,000 officers have gone through the first phase. … This is a big city with a lot of issues, and we have to be sensitive to those issues.
Q: What do you do away from the office?
A: I have two more classes to get my master’s in public administration. My husband and I enjoy antiquing. We love the Midwest, visiting the Midwest. Wisconsin. Madison, Milwaukee. A lot of people like going to Hawaii. I like Mackinac Island. I like bigger cities too. We like to go to museums.
Q: What about music? What do you listen to?
A: Oh, oldies.
Q: What would you tell your successor?
A: I have advice I give to the women in the department, and that’s that you should always look for opportunities and take those opportunities when they come. Don’t get comfortable in your position. I was never that person. I was always willing to volunteer to work a parade or work overtime. Don’t be afraid of stepping out of your comfort zone.
Twitter @bhageman1
