Woman breaks barriers at CWRU police

CLEVELAND — “My mother worked a lot. She was a teacher and my sister and I were either in daycare or in school.”

Sarah Shendy grew up in Saudi Arabia and is of Egyptian ancestry. Her family moved to Cleveland in 1991 when she was 6 years old.

“I just remember that it was very hard,” she says. “My parents didn’t have much growing up until they built something real here.”

But today Shendy is living the American dream – the dream of being a police officer in the USA. She says it’s like night and day compared to her hometown.

“The police (in my home country) are highly militarized and are actually there to protect the government and its interests,” she explained. “Of course, things are very different here, which is why I fell in love with police work.”

When she became a US citizen, she began training to become a police officer.

“I have always had a deep-rooted passion for public safety and for helping and serving others.”

And it wasn’t easy being a woman, a Muslim, and a woman of color. Shendy modestly says she “happened to meet the right people along the way who helped me get to where I am today.”

Today, she is the first Egyptian woman to serve in the Case Western Reserve University Police Department. She has since been promoted to lieutenant, making her the first woman of her ethnicity to achieve this rank in Ohio.

“I’m really proud of the fact that we have built and maintained such a healthy culture here that promotes women in leadership positions,” she told 3News.

According to Shendy, only 13% of police officers in the U.S. are female, and only 3% of those hold leadership positions. In a male-dominated profession, Shendy has a calm demeanor, which she attributes to her practicing Islamic religion.

She leads by example and takes part in training sessions that she will later take on herself. She listens to her colleagues and takes the lead where others want to follow.

“I want and am more than willing to build a brick road where there is none.”

Shendy was promoted despite only being with CWRU for a little over a year. She will be sworn in as a lieutenant on Tuesday.