St. Cloud Makes History With First Black Female Police Officer
ST. CLOUD, Minn. (WCCO) -- The demographics of the city of St. Cloud are changing and so is the face of its police department.
For the first time in the city's history an African-American female is a part of the police force.
Talisha Barlow is no stranger to St. Cloud. She was a standout on the hardwood when she played for the women's basketball team at St. Cloud State University. And as Reg Chapman shows us, Barlow is now scoring big as an officer.
Being in this type of position, all eyes are on you. Officer Talisha Barlow is turning heads on the streets of St. Cloud because she happens to be the city's first African-American female police officer.
"People have been nothing but supportive of me here and within the community everyone has been very supportive," Barlow said.
Barlow came up through the ranks. First as an intern, then a part-time community service officer. St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson says hiring her was a positive for the department.
"Hiring them from a couple of years prior, being sworn, she knows everybody here she's part of the family," Anderson said.
Barlow credits her time at St. Cloud State as a basketball player and student with her success.
"It's a great feeling knowing that I already had some of those ties to the community prior to becoming a police officer," Barlow said.
She loves to give back and often returns to her roots to help others who are thinking about a career in law enforcement. The St. Cloud Police Department is made up of 108 officers. Three of them are black, so is their chief, Anderson.
He says it's hard to get people through the process of becoming an officer, no matter what background they come from.
"In Minnesota the process to become a police officer, it's an arduous process and that's good, but there aren't a lot of people in the pipeline," Anderson said.
Anderson says because of that, the number of black officers is not what it should be in Minnesota.
"10,200 something officers and less than 200 are of color," he said.
The majority of those black officers work in St. Paul and Minneapolis.
"It's nice that our police department is starting to look like the community it serves," Anderson said.
Barlow says she loves to protect and serve many of the same people who cheered her own during basketball games at SCSU. She says she's encouraged by this opportunity to be a trailblazer and when she looks at history on the walls of the St. Cloud Police Department, it shows how far this community has come.
She knows adding her face to those who served before her will only strengthen the city she loves. Officer Barlow is a full-time field training officer.
Chief Anderson says he hopes to continue to diversify the department.
