It’s 12:30 p.m. on a Tuesday in Nashville, and Nashville Police Officer Abigail Beaver is on duty.
A call comes in from dispatch: A suspicious man at the Family Dollar is reportedly outside the store asking people for drugs.
Beaver turns her patrol car toward the action.
When she walks in, the man is at the register. A store employee slyly points him out. The man grabs his bag and heads outside.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]“Hey, can I talk to you?” Beaver says.
He admits to asking people for drugs the day before outside the store, but not today. He’s been staying at a nearby hotel.
Beaver has him empty his pockets. He has nothing.
Beaver informs him that he has been trespassed from the store.
A few minutes later, dispatch reports a fire alarm at a home right outside town on State Road 135 North. Beaver is en route again, but is soon back on patrol, as it’s a false alarm.
For Beaver, the only full-time, paid female road officer in Brown County, this is a busy day.
National Police Woman Day is this week, Sept. 12.
Nationally, about 10 percent of police officers are women.
The Brown County Sheriff’s Department has two paid female Animal Control officers, and two female reserve deputies who are volunteers. But Beaver, hired this year, is the first full-time paid female officer to work for the Nashville PD in four years, since former Town Marshal Stephanie Hess resigned in 2014.
Beaver always knew that this was what she wanted to do.
Her father works as a full-time deputy in Morgan County. Her uncle is an operations major with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources law enforcement division. Her brother is a full-time Indiana State Police trooper. Her uncle also worked here as a conservation officer.
“We were definitely raised to understand that the things my dad did were dangerous, and you get a bigger appreciation that life is very fleeting, so you learn to take advantage of all of the time that you have,” she said.
Which is why in her free time you can find Beaver playing with her rescue dog, Yukon, and spending time with her family. She also enjoys traveling and hiking.
Beaver grew up in Morgan County and was a member of the Class of 2015.
At 16, she began volunteering at a fire department. She began working full-time on a fire department’s ambulance when she was 18, staying there until she was 21.
Now 22, Beaver has been working full-time with the Nashville police department for about six months.
“This was the county closest to my own that I was familiar with and that I didn’t have family working at, because that’s a lot of extra pressure,” she said about choosing Brown County. “So, being able to get out on my own and establish my own name, but still be in a spot that I was comfortable.”
Nashville Chief of Police Ben Seastrom enjoys watching new hires like Beaver get used to their new jobs. “It brings back a lot from when I started out, how I really, really wanted to learn the job and do well at it. That’s what I get out of her and the other ones, too,” he said.
The police department has four part-time and six full-time officers.
Seastrom said the NPD Merit Commission decided to hire Beaver after she performed well on the written and physical tests and during the interview. Her experience working on ambulances and with fire departments was another factor. Beaver is also in the Army Reserves.
“I think she’s a good fit, and I hope she decides she wants to be in Nashville long-term,” Seastrom said.
“It’s not Indianapolis, but I hope that’s appealing to people. Indianapolis has its perks, but we’re Nashville. I love working here; I’ve been here for a long time. I hope that other people want to be here and be here a long time.”
Beaver said she enjoys working with her boss and co-workers. “If that continues, then I am more than happy to be here long into the future,” she said.
Beaver has not yet attended the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy, but plans to go in either September or January depending on if a spot is available. She has a year to finish the academy after being hired as a paid police officer.
She had to complete a 40 hour pre-basic training and then complete field training with the NPD before patrolling on her own.
Not easily intimidated
While speaking with the man outside Family Dollar, Beaver takes him to the corner of the building. He raises his arm and rests it on a post.
His arm is now over Beaver’s head, who stands at 5 feet, 0 inches.
But Beaver is not easily intimidated.
“I have three brothers who are all bigger than I am. Being on an ambulance, there’s no way to defend myself. I don’t have a weapon or anything, so you kind of just have to go in and establish that you’re not intimidated of people,” she said.
“Even if you are nervous, act confident and just avoid displaying that. If they don’t pick up on it or see that you’re intimidated by what they’re doing, they’re not going to try and do anything. Nine times out of 10, people really feed off how you respond.”
Beaver said she is lucky to have not experienced disrespect in her line of work because of her gender.
“I try too hard to be really, really great at everything I do, but that’s a me pressure. That’s not someone else saying, ‘You’re a girl, so you need to do this better,’” she said.
However, young girls do notice a police officer who looks like them.
“There have been several times where I’ve been out doing stuff and little girls have said stuff like, ‘Oh, that’s so cool. Oh, wow.’ It feels good. It feels good to know that I’m doing something that not every female would be comfortable doing and that I can have a positive reach to kids,” she said.
‘Don’t ever be worried to call’
In Brown County, Beaver said most people are receptive and appreciative of police officers. “It’s cool to come to work and be appreciated,” she said.
“This day and age, a lot of people are not so pro-police anymore. It’s give and take. I’ve definitely had more good experiences than bad.”
Beaver knows that the people she encounters are usually not having their best days. She wants the community to know that police are there to help them on those days.
“A lot of people are really quick to apologize for calling us. You shouldn’t ever feel sorry if what you’re going through, you really need help with. Don’t ever be worried to call and ask,” she said.
Being a female officer sometimes means Beaver is a comfort to scared children or victims of battery. Finding the balance between nurturing and being an authority figure is something she has learned to control.
“A lot of times you have to be the strong person for everybody, which is fine; I would rather have that display with somebody than somebody who is super emotional, because I’m not an emotional person,” she said.
A study done in 2018 by the University of Virginia showed that a increase in female officers working in an area corresponded to a rise in assaults reported by women, especially domestic violence. However, incidences of repeated domestic violence and of intimate partner homicides decreased in ares with more female officers. The authors concluded that having more female officers on staff could help women feel more comfortable reporting assaults, and could help entire departments take domestic violence more seriously.
Beaver said the majority of calls she responds to are domestic disturbances and crashes.
During the day in town, she’s also responding to theft reports at the shops and checking on businesses. She also spends a lot of time making sure everyone is following traffic laws, especially in town where there are lots of people walking.
“You can stay busy if you want,” she said.
With two senior apartment buildings in town, she gets calls about lift assists and other medical emergencies, too.
Before 2:30 p.m., a call comes from Hawthorne Hills about a woman who has fallen in her apartment. An ambulance was dispatched from Bartholomew County since Brown County’s two ambulances were busy on other calls. Beaver lets dispatch know she’s en route.
Ultimately Beaver would to be a K9 unit. Her dad did the same in Morgan County for years.
As her shift nears an end, she’s driving on State Road 135 North toward Nashville and is about to turn down Artist Drive when she notices a truck with its blinkers on parked along Jefferson Street. She decides to check it out in case the person is in need of help.
She pulls up behind the truck, turns her lights on and has dispatch run the license plate. But before dispatch can get back to her, she realizes who it is: Dean Keefauver, a fellow officer who volunteers as a reserve deputy with the Brown County Sheriff’s Department.
Keefauver had stopped to see a family member’s new puppy.
“Thanks for running me through dispatch,” he said with a laugh as Beaver pets the dog.
“Hey, you would have been happy to see me if you had been broken down,” she responds with a smile.
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You also might see these other women in uniform around the county:
AMANDA SISSON: Brown County Sheriff’s Department Animal Control
BETHANY HELDMAN: Brown County Sheriff’s Department Animal Control
ANDREA BAKER: Brown County Sheriff’s Department reserve deputy (volunteer “school cop”)
ERIKA TEMPLE: Brown County Sheriff’s Department reserve deputy
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