Collections by Michelle Brown WSG Former Ohio Police Officer Nakia Jones

Collections by Michelle Brown

Nakia Jones always wanted to be a productive member in her neighborhood and was drawn to a career where she could both “protect and serve”. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio and studied criminal justice at Wilberforce University with the intention of becoming a prosecuting attorney .In 1999 Officer Jones joined the Highland Hills Police Department and in 2002 she was sworn in as the first African American female officer for the City of Warrensville Heights where she also lived.She held that position as the Senior Response Officer until 2017. After the deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling in 2016 she posted a passionate video on Facebook responding to the shootings as a mother, an African American ad a police officer. Little did she know, what she thought was a personal post for friends and family would go viral. Within 24 hours her video had been viewed more than 1.2 million times with nearly 80,000 shares and the views continued to climb. Her video, which lasts more than seven minutes, included calling out any officers who may have racial problems continues to be watched three years later. Officer Jones talks about the contradictions between living as an African American woman and mother while walking the “Blue” line as a police officer.