Trisha Brubaker
Serving the Community with Joy
story by JENNIFER BROWN-CARPENTER photos by PAUL NURNBERG
Trisha Brubaker loves that her job is something new every day. Not one day of her career is monotonous or mundane. She knows that she is going out into the community and making a difference. Trisha is a First Sergeant with the City of Beaufort Police Department.
Trisha was raised outside of Buffalo, New York. She was a bartender in North Tonawanda and was also a reserve officer. Her boss at her bartending job would not give her the time off to take the civil service exam. This is a requirement up north to become a police officer. She was caught between a rock and a hard place, wanting to take the exam but needing her job to pay for her bills and keep her apartment.
Trisha decided to call her uncle, who was working as Sergeant in Investigations (now Major) with the Port Royal Police Department, and asked who in the Lowcountry was hiring at the time. He’d always encourage her to pursue a career as a police officer. He told her that just about everyone was hiring. She was tired of the snow and was ready and willing to pursue her dream of being a police officer. She put out many applications and received quite a few offers. So she packed her bags and moved down to little Beaufort.
As a child, Trisha wanted to be a veterinarian. She planned to be a vet right up until her sophomore year of high school when she sat down with guidance counselors to discuss her future. During this process of discussing future options, she realized a few things.
– She was not very good at math, so anything in the medical profession would probably not be the best option for her.
– She did not have a lot of money to put toward college.
– She cried like a baby at anything to do with animals. Yes, she is one of those people who cry at dog commercials on TV.
She still knew that she wanted to do something to help. Her guidance counselor, Mrs. Demarches, said that Trisha struck her as a police officer. “You have a good persona, a good character, and you see the good in everything,” is what she told Trisha. Trisha looked into it and decided that it was something she was interested in.
Trisha was all in from the beginning. She was never afraid of the more intense aspects of the job. She grew up watching Cops on TV and was always interested in the job. She became a reserve officer and realized that she genuinely enjoyed the work.
In South Carolina, you do not need a college degree to become a police officer. Trisha served as a police officer for five years or so before she finished her associate’s degree at the Technical College of the Lowcountry in 2011. In 2013, she got her bachelor’s degree online through Colorado Technical University. And in 2018, she finished up her master’s degree in Criminal Justice with a specialty in Leadership and Executive Management.
Trisha attends to every detail and takes great joy in every aspect of her job every day. When driving down the road, she’s smiling and waving, or she’s happy doing what she does every day. “I make it a point to smile and wave at everyone I make eye contact with,” Trisha says. She loves serving people by finding their lost dogs, returning a stolen bike, getting a child out of a bad situation, and on and on. “You get a sense of fulfillment out of going to work,” Trisha says.
When Trisha moved to the Lowcountry, she started with the Sheriff’s Office for two years. She then transitioned to the Bluffton Police Department for almost eight years before transitioning to the City of Beaufort Police Department in 2016. She feels as if the police department here has good backing from the community. Everyone wants to make where they live a safer place. She was driving home from work one night around 9:30 p.m., and there was some trash in the middle of the street. She stopped to pick it up, and before she knew it, fast-food workers and a homeless person were helping her pick up the trash. These moments help her see that she is doing the right thing and genuinely making a difference.
Trisha is one of the first family members ever to finish college, and she moved out of her parents’ house to live on her own at a very young age. She has always been very work-driven. Growing up outside of Buffalo, there were not many things to do as far as a career; it’s a very blue-collar workforce. You can go to college and get a good corporate job, or you become a blue-collar worker. When Trisha came down to South Carolina, she had more opportunities to use her skill set and that she loved.
Trisha is engaged to a Deputy at the Sheriff’s Office. “It’s nice to have someone who understands all the ins and outs of the job. It makes a difference to have someone at home who can sympathize with what your day was like.” They might sometimes have a difference in opinion on things, but that difference allows them to think outside the box even more. They are planning to get married next May.
Trisha works 12.25 hour days, theoretically. There are days when she works much longer. She does not mind staying late because she loves being there so much. She is a First Sergeant, which makes her a patrol supervisor. She is the supervisor of Team Three, which is seven people, including herself. She wants everyone to know that it is not her team. It is their team. Everyone has ownership – for themselves, the team, as a stakeholder in the community, and a police department member.
Whether a day shift or night shift, it starts about 6:45 (a.m. or p.m.). They take 15 or 20 minutes to go over the pass-down. This encompasses any reports taken, any arrests made, cars to be on the lookout for, suspects of different crimes, etc. They also like to do training in every shift brief, whether this is on new statutes, newly released Supreme Court case rulings, new reports, and more. It is essential to keep your mind cultivated and keep learning. “The job is one of the most organic jobs,” Trisha tells people. “You have to be constantly reading the law and knowing your people because things change all the time. You cannot remain stagnant if you want to be a good police officer for your community.”
Trisha would love to be the first female Chief of Police at the City of Beaufort Police Department. If not that, her goal would be to be a Command Staff member, so that she can continue being a leader and someone that future officers would be able to look up to. Long term, after she retires, she is interested in looking into the law aspect and possibly becoming a judge. The entire judicial process intrigues her.
Trisha’s qualifications include:
ASP Baton Instructor, Knife Defense Instructor, Ground Defense Instructor, Defense Tactics Instructor, Alive at 25 Instructor, Radar Instructor, and Driving Instructor. She is SFST, Datamaster, NAMI, and Bike certified. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the Technical College of the Lowcountry.
Trisha enjoys going to the gun range and the gym in her off time, spending time with her fur babies, attending concerts, and watching hockey. “I do not feel like I work.” Trisha feels so confident that she is doing exactly what she was meant to do and even more so since she came to the City of Beaufort Police Department. “There has been such a warm sense of welcome – the citizens and community – I just love where I am.”
