When they are not at work, they are simply known to family and friends as Charles and Stephanie.
And while they are known as Chief Charles Husted and Lt. Stephanie Foley at work for the Sedona Police Department, they want people to know that they, too, are human, make mistakes and have emotions.
But they also understand that these days there’s often tension among the public and law enforcement — an “us vs. them” mentality — even though it doesn’t have to be that way.
The two were guest speakers during the International Day of Peace on Monday, Sept. 21, at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre. Foley was there in person while Husted appeared via Zoom, as he was in California. The topic was how to dissolve the divide between law enforcement and the community. A similar talk featured Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jeff Newnum, of the Detention Services Division, responsible for incarceration of inmates and services pertaining to their health, welfare and safety.
The day was hosted by Sedona International Film Festival, Sedona International City of Peace, Mental Health Coalition of the Verde Valley and National Alliance on Mental Illness. The collaboration was made possible through a donation from an anonymous Sedona resident.
Foley, who has been with the department for 15 years, grew up in Connecticut and later attended college at Northern Arizona University, where she studied psychology with a goal of counseling families. In her early 20s, she realized it might be hard to counsel people on topics she had not yet experienced herself. She then thought about becoming a judge or a police officer.
“I went on some ride-alongs and immediately I knew this is what I was meant to do,” she said.
Foley, who noted that just 10% to 13% of law enforcement officers are women, said being a female officer can be challenging and an internal struggle early in her career added to that.
“This is something that I put on myself,” she said. “I didn’t share a lot of who I was when I started the job and kept it hidden. I got married six years ago to my wife. That was something I had to learn early on that because I held that to myself, I was allowing others a way to hurt me because I wasn’t comfortable with myself.
“Once I decided that I didn’t care what others thought and if they had a problem with homosexuality, it was very freeing for myself. We all have a story.”
Husted came to Sedona a year-and-a-half ago after spending 30 years with the Sacramento Police Department. Early in his career he was hand-picked by his chief at the time to be part of a community policing program, which was something new to the area.
“I worked in partnership with community members and I have to say that was, by far, the best thing that could have ever happened to me,” he said. “I had an innate heart for people but in order to understand that we are truly in this together and the police department can’t fix all the community’s problems, it really has to be a collaboration in an authentic sort of way.”
During the event, both officers were asked how the department deals with employees’ mental and emotional well-being. While they may not be dealing with big-city issues these days, feelings toward officers nationally — both good and bad — are felt locally.
“Law enforcement is a tough job, just by its nature, but it’s gotten much, much tougher,” Husted said. “Our officers have a heart to help and serve others but to be berated — not necessarily locally but nationally — and infused with this negative perspective is very difficult.”
He said SPD has joined with Spectrum Health to offer staff and families an opportunity to talk with mental health care professionals.
“But unfortunately in law enforcement it’s that culture — which has gotten better — but when I first started most officers would not go to a mental health practitioner,” Husted said. “There was this machismo, tough-guy kind of attitude. And that stigma has changed over the years but it still remains.”
The other component within SPD is to treat the staff like family and to check in on their fellow colleagues. Husted said it’s a work in progress because some don’t feel comfortable in opening up and dropping their guard. It fact, it will soon be policy for supervisors to watch for signs of stress or other emotions out of the ordinary surrounding post traumatic stress disorder among their officers.
The community can help as well.
“If you see an officer, just wave at them,” Husted said. “Come up and thank them for their service or write a card. It’s those kinds of things that reassure our officers.”
A member of the audience said that when he was in his late teens he had a run-in with the law that sent him to prison. He said he was guilty of some of the charges but innocent of others. Now, years later, he said he has not gotten over that experience and was wondering how the public and law enforcement can bridge that gap of establishing better trust with one another.
“We need to have more community engagement like this,” Foley said. “Start with our own community so that it’s not so overwhelming. We can make a difference with these healing conversations. We are all going to make mistakes. I’ve made mistakes. From the beginning of my career if I was on a call for DUI or domestic violence, I would tell people, ‘I don’t think this is who you are. I think it was a moment in time I was an eyewitness to. Because I saw you this way yesterday, does not mean this is who I think you are tomorrow.’”
