The Foreign Service Journal, May 2016

28 may 2016 | the foreign Service journal “P olice volunteer? Why on earth would you want to do that?!” I’d met my fellow retired ladies for lunch, a monthly ritual. I was looking for- ward to telling them I’d at last found a volunteer program that excited me. I hadn’t expected such a skeptical response. “I thought it sounded interesting,” I said. “I like working with people.” “Will you be able to make arrests?” “Will you wear a gun?” “How will you feel if you have to see a dead body?” In my career as a consular officer, I’d already seen my share of dead bodies, but it’s not a fact I talk about at the table with my lunch buddies. Since becoming a Raleigh, North Carolina, police volunteer I haven’t viewed a single corpse, but I’ve had satisfying, respon- sible, varied assignments. I was drawn to police work because it offered me a way to keep on watching that endless parade of human experience that I loved as a consular officer. Most important of all, to me, is that I’ve been able to continue being a public servant and use many of the skills I acquired in 28 years as a Foreign Service officer. A Natural Transition Right now, I’m assigned to the Family Violence Intervention Unit. Every time a patrol officer files a report on what the cops call “a domestic,” a uniformed officer or detective frommy unit follows up. Some “domestics” are very serious, leading to com- plex investigations, arrests for felonies, trials, protection orders and relocation of victims. They require many hours of the police officer’s time. Others concern conflicts that may be distressing to the people involved, but don’t land the participants in the Police work offered me a way to keep on watching that endless parade of human experience that I loved as a consular officer. By Ann B . S i des Ann B. Sides was a Foreign Service consular officer from 1983 to 2011. Her overseas assignments included Niamey, Dakar, Oran, Belgrade (twice), Zagreb, Dublin, Sarajevo and Athens, where she served as consul general from 2004 to 2008. She is the author of MaggieMinds Her Busi- ness (CreateSpace, 2014), a consular-themedmystery novel set in Africa. FromConsul General to Police Volunteer FOCUS On Life after the foreign service