Houston, Tx
‘I would do it all again’ | HPD’s ‘Mama Bear’ hanging up her badge after nearly four decades on the force
Commander Tinsley Guinn-Shaver has seen all of it throughout her 40-year profession: From being stabbed, crushed and robbed to turning into “Mama Bear” to fellow officers.
HOUSTON — As she signed on the road, Tinsley Guinn-Shaver nonetheless couldn’t imagine she agreed to retire from the Houston Police Division.
The 60-year outdated Houston native sat in her nook workplace on the seventh ground of HPD’s downtown headquarter as a consultant with human assets walked her by way of the paperwork that makes retirement official.
“It’s my dedication to retire,” stated the HPD Commander as she held up a single sheet of white paper. “The robust one. That is the robust one”
The tip of an period with the one flick of a ballpoint pen.
“I’ve been dreading this second,” stated Guinn-Shaver as she answered the prompts on paper. “I actually have.”
The early years
Guinn-Shaver recollects strolling into the Houston Police Division on April 26, 1980. She labored as a dispatcher whereas nonetheless in highschool. On the suggestion of her father, she recollects asking her supervisor if she might are available early and keep late. In that second she established the work ethic she would follow for the subsequent 4 a long time.
In December 1982, Guinn-Shaver was among the many six feminine cadets to graduate from Houston Police Academy class 110. Ladies in legislation enforcement have been so new, all six feminine cadets have been positioned within the first row of the category picture.
“Once I first received on, that many alternatives weren’t actually round for girls to maneuver,” or get promoted.
Stabbed within the again, slashed throughout her throat
Guinn-Shaver labored within the metropolis’s jail. She later patrolled Houston on the night time shift. She was stabbed and slashed within the again whereas responding to an assault in an house complicated parking zone earlier than she was 25 years outdated. It’s an damage that might have been prevented if the officer was sporting a ballistic vest. However they weren’t available to feminine officers on the time.
Whereas working undercover for narcotics, the Houston police officer was slashed throughout her throat and robbed.
‘Please do not make me do it’
She first fired her weapon within the line-of-duty throughout a 1990 visitors cease involving a jail escapee.
“That’s when every part modified,” stated Guinn-Shaver who nonetheless remembers the expertise that police are likely to name “essential occasions.”
“It was a white male. 45 years outdated. I bear in mind.”
She’s by no means forgotten the head-butt to her face. The foot pursuit. Him grabbing maintain of her flashlight.
“He swung it. He swung it like a baseball bat,” that cracked open her head. Shattered her tooth.
“I’m saying, ‘Please.’ I pull my gun. I stated, ‘Please don’t make me do it. Please don’t make me do it. Please don’t make me do it,’” Guinn-Shaver stated earlier than pausing to take a breath. “And he wouldn’t. And I pushed my gun out. And I fired one time. And he fell.”
She grew to become one of many first feminine officers within the nation concerned in a lethal capturing, in response to Harvard College. The Ivy League School contacted Guinn-Shaver after the lethal capturing and requested to doc her story so professors might create curriculum round ladies in legislation enforcement.
Transferring up the ladder
Her expertise — and what she discovered within the months and years after — are particulars she shares with cadets and different officers.
Her vulnerability and compassion is a part of the explanation why the officers who work alongside the HPD Commander lovingly name her, “Mama Bear.”
Guinn-Shaver’s profession profile additionally mentions that she “even thwarted her personal assassination by raiding a neighborhood illicit watering gap and taking her would-be killers into custody.”
She was promoted to sergeant in January 2005. She earned a bachelor’s and grasp’s diploma in management and was promoted to lieutenant in October 2013. In March 2017, Guinn-Shaver was promoted to commander.
Months later, she safely led the evacuation of the Central Patrol Station throughout Hurricane Harvey.
‘My entire life is right here’
“This job has been such a blessing, I might do it once more.”
Reflections, approaching retirement because the 42-year HPD veteran signed on the dotted line.
“My entire life. Since I used to be 18. I’m 60 now. My entire life is right here,” stated Guinn-Shaver as she appeared on the mementos, presents, awards and accolades that fill her workplace. “My relationships. My ardour. My coronary heart. It’s all right here.”
She instructions HPD’s Theft Division till Friday at 5 p.m.
She’s mentored, educated and supported numerous officers. She hopes to proceed to “elevate” others in retirement.
“All of us have an obligation to elevate these round us.”
In her ultimate week with the Houston Police Division, with a photograph in hand of her as an officer at 22-years outdated, Commander Tinsley Guinn-Shaver can’t assist however mirror and inform her youthful self, “Job effectively achieved, child.”
Greater than 4 a long time of near-death experiences, skilled and private development, extreme climate and milestones, “I might do all of it once more.”
‘You possibly can battle crime, you simply can’t battle father time’: Houston police sergeant displays on job as he retires after 41 years
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