NEWS

'I want to make my community proud': Gastonia Police takes diverse step in leadership

Beatriz Guerrero
The Gaston Gazette
Assistant Chief Nancy Brogdon is shown here with Gastonia Police Chief Travis Brittain in an April 2021 Gazette file photograph. Her promotion to her new role in July marks a historic move within the department when it comes to diversity.

Leadership within the Gastonia Police Department has gotten more diverse.

The department promoted 40-year-old Nancy Brogdon to one of two assistant chief positions in July, making her the highest-ranking Latinx woman in the agency's history. 

Brogdon, 40, whose both parents are Mexican, has been in the police force since 2005 in Gastonia. Throughout her journey in the department, Brogdon has served in a number of positions. She stepped into leadership for the first time in 2013 where she was promoted to sergeant and in 2020 she was promoted to captain.

Far from her home in Chicago, Brogdon has made sure to take with her the Latin roots she was raised with.

"English was the first language I learned because my baby-sitter was American but there was a period of my life where my family and I moved back to Mexico (Guadalajara). I spent a few years there but after coming back from Mexico to Chicago, I had to learn English all over again," said Brogdon.

"My parents migrated and their goal was to come to America, save enough money to be able to build a home and a business."

Brogdon first dreamed of working in law enforcement at age 7, which has pushed her to challenge stereotypes in policing and improve the officer interactions with members of the Hispanic/Latinx community.

Her mother helped keep her motivated as she worked to claim her place. Now becoming the assistant chief, she hopes to inspire other women like her to continue to dream big.

"This is a man's world so I knew that there was going to be challenges along the way. I was determined to make it." 

Cultural differences can lead to misconceptions and cause a divide between Hispanics and law enforcement, Brogdon said. To help bridge that gap she tries to expose her culture to her colleagues and others.

Sometimes that means fixing her fellow officers a traditional dish.

Assistant police chief Nancy Brogdon listens to Chief Travis Brittain as he talks with members of the community at a Hispanic Gastonia Police officers community event on Saturday, April 17, 2021.

"They love to eat my food because I like to cook and they like to learn about the Latino community," she said. "If you're not exposed to it, you don't know."

Brogdon has been working to help the department gain the trust of the Latinx/Hispanic community in Gastonia. She has built relationships with Latinx/Hispanic businesses, such as the WoW Market, to hold events and showcase the unity between the police department and the community.

Brogdon created a Facebook page "Policia de Gastonia," in Spanish which translates to "Gastonia Police," so non-English speakers can still be aware of the things that are happening in the city.

"With the Facebook page, we want to show the Latinx/Hispanic community that we are here for them to talk about their problems, to bridge that gap and have better relationships with our community."

While there are other Latinx/Hispanic officers in the Gastonia Police Department, Brogdon said she and her colleagues recognize more work remains to be done.

"There are many things we have planned to straighten our relationship with the community, including recruiting as many diverse officers as we can," said Brogdon.

Alongside Brogdon's promotion, former sergeant, Adrienne Walker, will now serve as a captain, the first Black woman to achieve that high rank.

Representation matters when discussing diversity, Brogdon said, and goes a long way toward building trust with different communities inside the the city as a whole.

"I want to make my city and my community proud," she said, "and I hope I can do so in the years to come as assistant chief."

Beatriz Guerrero can be reached at 704-869-1828 or on Twitter@BeatrizGue_