Richard W. Rodriguez
Monica Martin, having moved up the ranks of the Fort Worth Police Department, realized that she needed advanced instruction on handling budgets and financial issues if she wanted to move into the department’s executive ranks.
“I knew there was gonna be a time of transitioning from a tactical to more of a business mindset,” says Martin, 44.
Martin is a 2023 graduate of TCU’s EMBA program. Mere weeks after finishing, she became the first African American woman promoted to deputy chief in the city of Fort Worth. She oversees South Patrol, which is East Division, South Division, and Central Downtown.
Martin knows East Division well, considering she is a graduate of Eastern Hills High School.
Martin raves about her cohort at TCU, which included NBC5 sports anchor Newy Scruggs.
“We walked in as strangers and left as family,” she says. “And I think that, out of all things, was the biggest bonus for me.”
When they all graduated, they celebrated with a trip to Cancun. A trip to Jamaica is planned for this year.
Martin, who has a bachelor’s in business management from Prairie View A&M, chose law enforcement as a profession after her stepfather, retired Fort Worth police lieutenant Glen Edney, encouraged her to do so.
“He used to always talk to me when I was in college: ‘Hey, you might want to look into being a law enforcement officer.’ I was, like, ‘I don’t want to do that.’”
She changed her mind the night her mother and sister were robbed in the family’s driveway. “On top of looking at my stepfather and just how he loved what he was doing, I remember thinking if I had been there the night of the robbery, would I have known what to do.”
The assailant was 16 years old.
“I remember wondering what pathway he took that put him there. I really started to focus not just on change but progress. How can we create pathways to success for kids, especially in our underserved communities?”
Martin isn’t done with her graduate studies. She is pursuing a doctorate in business administration at Prairie View.
Like any good police officer, she’s thinking ahead. If an opportunity comes in city management, she wants to be ready.
“I have been reaching out to some of our assistant city managers, and they have allowed me to come shadow them,” says Martin, who is eligible to retire from the department in five years. “So, I'm thinking about the end of this tenure and my next journey.”
First in the Series: "From the Shores of Haiti to the Halls of UTA."