APD ACADEMY GRADUATE

After completing an eight week training at the APD Citizen's Police Academy, and then receiving a Diploma from former Atlanta Chief of Police Erika Shields at Tracee's graduation on June 6, 2017 at City Hall, which was a rewarding moment and sense of accomplishment for Tracee.

Tracee gained a deeper level of respect for Law Enforcement Officers during the twenty plus hours of skilled and professional instruction, which also included but not limited to a Department Overview, visits at SWAT, 911 Call Center, Traffic Stops, Homicide Investigations and Ride-a-Longs, and much more.

Due to Tracee also being required by her membership on the Atlanta Citizen Review Board, she completed two separate eight hours full shift ride-a-longs with two different Officers in zones 4 and 7.

Her first experience was at an apartment building that was a crime scene, of which a female was shot dead in the parking the night prior.  

On that particular evening on February 5, 2017, Tracee was riding with an Officer N. Palencia on her very first ride-a-long, whom was dispatched to the same apartment complex, due to an undercover investigator conducting surveillance in the parking lot after the gun violence death.

The Undercover Investigator received Probable Cause to detain and search upon witnessing a male and female that were sitting in a car smoking weed.

Tracee hadn’t expected to have gotten so up close and that personal to the crime scene when the lead Detective called Tracee over to see the pistol lying inside on the car floorboard, which was found on the passenger's side during the vehicle search.

Tracee received the full effect when she was later assigned to stand guard outside in between the two police cars where the suspects were being held separately, while the investigation continued.

Tracee’s also shared that the fatigue alone after her ride-a-longs were more that enough to have discouraged her from being ever interested in becoming a law enforcement officer.

Furthermore, according to Tracee, her APD Academy Graduation night was even more unforgettable since British playwright, television producer and all around beautiful person Paul Kalburgi flew in to Atlanta from the U.K. and documented her journey to incorporate in his 2017 Verbatim "IN THE TALL GRASS".

His groundbreaking play was about the unprecedented number of Black and Latina Trans women being murdered, way before Shade Schuler's murder in Texas.