In South Tucson, Yvonne Billotte, 40, has been the only full-time female police officer out of 16 for about eight years.
On an afternoon ride along on the empty streets of South Tucson, Billotte describes her passion for being part of law enforcement while being a mother of five girls.
"I love being a police officer because I like being out in the streets and talking to people and dealing with things," Billotte said. "But I also like being a detective, solving, and finishing off a case, and arresting and charging people."
Billotte moved to Tucson with her family from Ohio when she was 13. Her father was a law enforcement officer and she feels that is one reason she became one. However, being a mother is what encouraged her to do it."The hardest thing my dad ever said was the biggest challenge was going to a call where there was a child involved and praying to God it wasn't yours," Billotte said.
She attended the Southern Arizona Law Enforcement Academy and has been trained in DUIs, homicides, death investigations, sexual assaults and robberies.
Because she is female, people assume she is weak, but Billotte says she is fair, until their tone changes.
Sgt. Walker Pike believes his department is lucky to have her. Other female officers have left for higher pay, Sargent Walter Pike said.
Billotte finds it sad that so few women enter the profession. "I think females change the aspects of things and how they are dealt with," Billotte said. "There are more male officers that get into fights in confrontations, and that's strictly because of that ego thing that happens. I've had more success talking people into a set of handcuffs than I do fighting them."
Pike described Billotte as bubbly, especially when it comes to handling aggressive situations.
"She will pretty much and can do anything everybody does her. You have to watch her in action."
Her car was one of five police cars occupying the streets that afternoon when she received a call about an ex-tenant refusing to leave his apartment. Billotte has dealt with the same issue several times, she said.
"When you work in South Tucson, you get to know who your bad guys are. You start making contact a lot more. We send people away, and then they get out, and you'll know the burglaries or shoplifting is going to go up," she said.
Billotte drove into a deserted area called Borderland Construction Co., where barbed wire fenced about half the land. People break in here, cutting into the fence and using this area as cover, she said. Billotte has come upon three vehicles with two to three people inside them having sex, all of them during the day.
There is an equal mixture of both female and male crime, where females commit prostitution, shoplifting, and narcotic activity, while males mainly deal with drugs, she said. The oldest prostitute in South Tucson was a 67-year old, who got into drugs and prostitution at an early age, Billotte said.
Her favorite person in the entire world doesn't exist: Sherlock Holmes. Billotte has always been interested in solving crimes and putting the pieces of a puzzle together.
"The interesting thing is, he didn't do everything the legal way, the way we do things, but he was always looking at things from a different angle. Always looking at the bigger picture and then looking at the minor things in that picture. That's just been one big thing for me," she said.
The most disappointing case Billotte has ever dealt with was a homicide where the people arrested were all found not guilty.
"The juries today watch too much CSI, they just want the DNA", she said. "There is that little way where justice prevails, but not in the way you want it to prevail. You want to see our system do what its supposed to do, but things happen."
Billotte and other police cars drive around and monitor the streets. "Basic presence" is what she calls it.
"We want people to know we're out here and that if you need something you can flag us down," she said.
Billotte said one of the hardest things she has learned to do was separate her emotions from her job.
"Hopefully, the interaction they have with us will improve the reaction with every law enforcement officer so they can trust people in uniform," she said.
As she drove into different neighborhoods, she passed by a house with a fence. An albino horse stood there, facing the streets.
"He's the only reason I come down here everyday just to see him. He's my favorite," she says.
