As part of the Department of Homeland Security’s ongoing work to stand with and support women law enforcement agents and officers across the country, DHS Deputy Chief of Staff Kay Lord Fallon represented the Department at a National Police Woman’s Day celebration of women in law enforcement, hosted by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, Women in Federal Law Enforcement, and the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives in Washington, DC. Her remarks are below:
Good morning.
My name is Kay Lord Fallon, and I am truly honored to be here with you all today. I am the Deputy Chief of Staff at the Department of Homeland Security and, on behalf of Secretary Mayorkas and Deputy Secretary Canegallo, I want to extend the Department’s deepest gratitude to each of you, to your units and teams, and to your families for your service to your communities and to our nation.
Thank you to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, Women in Federal Law Enforcement, and the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives for hosting this National Police Woman’s Day celebration.
The Department of Homeland Security is the largest law enforcement organization in the federal government – we employ nearly 80,000 law enforcement officers. Each day, DHS works alongside many hundreds of thousands more federal, state, local, territorial, tribal, and campus law enforcement officers. We train together, we investigate together, we coordinate and protect and serve with one another.
The Department of Homeland Security celebrates the wins, big and small, right alongside you – the major takedown of a criminal network, the capture of a dangerous suspect, the restoration of peace and safety in a community, getting home safely at the end of a shift. We also mourn together, and remember the sacrifices of men and women who gave their lives in service of their communities.
The devotion and bond DHS has with our law enforcement workforce, and yours, drives us to do better, to be better, to better serve those serving – particularly women.
The work the Department has undertaken to support women in law enforcement resonates deeply with me because, about a decade ago, I was one of those women.
As boarding officer in the United States Coast Guard, a component of DHS, I had the time of my life embarking what felt like every single boat between Miami Beach and West Palm. I had a Sig on my hip and a plate on my chest and woe be on you if you had an undersized fish or expired flares on your boat. There were operational high points where we busted drug traffickers in the Florida Straits and human smugglers in the Caribbean. We saved lives and put away bad guys.
But looking back, it could have been better. I was the only woman in my law enforcement training course and aboard my ship – I never served alongside another woman law enforcement officer. That Sig fit uncomfortably in my waistband holster because the belt was not designed for my body type, and it took nearly six months on the job for me to get a bulletproof vest designed for a woman.
I was never mentored by another woman in law enforcement because there were not any around. And I did not talk to anybody about occasionally feeling scared doing the work or about the incredible pressure I felt to be perfect at my job, because I wanted to rebut the presumption that lurked around the corner: that I did not belong there because I am a woman.
DHS has not fixed all these issues in the years since. But we’ve made progress, and we are not slowing down. We have established a DHS Women in Law Enforcement Task Force, and we are laser focused on initiatives to recruit, retain, and elevate highly trained, competent, and qualified women across DHS law enforcement components. We have established mentoring programs, and we have reshaped our policies to ensure that women law enforcement agents and officers at DHS get the tools, training, support, and opportunities to have a full, fulfilling law enforcement career - and also be full, fulfilled people.
The Department has taken these steps because it is the right thing to do, yes, but also because we recognize the tremendous, undeniable value women bring to law enforcement. Where women serve, outcomes are better. Period. The data supports this, the workforce supports it, the thousands upon thousands of women in law enforcement bear out this truth each day.
For example: there was Border Patrol Agent in Eagle Pass, Texas who recently responded to an accident where a person was hit by a train and lost both of their legs. The Agent used a tourniquet and saved the victim’s life with her quick action. A short while ago, a United States Secret Service Agent observed a man acting strangely. She checked on him, then departed, but she didn’t feel right, so she went back and talked the man down off a bridge as he was preparing to jump to his death. We all witnessed the utter heroics by the agents who ran toward fire in Butler, Pennsylvania a few months ago.
There are times where I miss being at sea and in the thick of the action – but I doubt I will ever do anything as important as supporting my Department to create and nurture as many women as possible who can keep their hands steady while applying a tourniquet or their voice calm while talking down someone in crisis. I don’t know if a woman who runs towards gunfire to save a life is born or is made, but either way, I want her in a DHS uniform, or in one of yours.
We are making progress and every level of leadership across every Department of this Administration, including Secretary Mayorkas and Deputy Secretary Canegallo, stand in support of this community, doing this work - supporting women in law enforcement in this moment. I’m proud to stand with them, and I’m proud to stand with all of you today. The Department of Homeland Security remains committed to the women of law enforcement in our ranks and across the country in yours.
Thank you.