Carla came from a law enforcement family. Her father was a law enforcement officer but was unfortunately killed in the line of duty. Her mother, too, served as an officer and rose the ranks to become the Chief of police in her department.
Her parents inspired her to follow in their footsteps. Her decision to pursue a career in law enforcement was confirmed after she went on her first police ride-along when she was 16 years old.
After Carla graduated from Florida State University, she went on to start a very distinguished career in law enforcement. She worked hard, always wanted to learn and found ways to continually improve herself throughout her career.
Her department also recognized her staunch commitment to police work and eventually appointed her as a training officer where she could further expand her skillset.
She not only helps the next generation of officers learn the trade, but she goes out to the community to help civilians as well.
“We go to schools and even churches, and we’ll do training on teaching them how to do pre-attack indicators. So that’s my goal is to kind of ‘push’ that training,” Carla said.
Even with Carla’s level of training and experience, she hit her most difficult challenge in 2018. It involved the tragic Parkland shooting that took the lives of 17 people, mostly students.
Carla was among the police response and trained some of the police officer’s that were on scene. Her role as a training officer surely helped that tragic shooting from becoming much worse.
Some of her challenges came in the days following the shooting incident. Carla served as the Public Information Officer (PIO) and was responsible for communicating critical information to the press and public.
“Anyone who has ever dealt with national media with something like that can understand where I’m coming from. It was overwhelming. It turned into a little bit of a circus,” she said.
Most of her challenges as the PIO came from a lack of media integrity. As she tried to get important information out, the media would publish inaccurate information and took things out of context.
“Seeing things put out in the media that was not the truth, even media personnel who were telling me they were going to put something out even if I told them it was not accurate was very stressful,” Carla said.
But Carla’s strength and confidence got her through the media ordeal. And that’s the message she wants to tell women everywhere.
“Confidence is key. Just know what you’re doing, project yourself in a confident manner, and I think you’ll be successful.”
To learn more about Carla and her training programs, visit Patriot Consulting, Inc.
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