Police officer Jennifer Cramer ’07 maintains law and order in Rumford, Maine

Story and photos by Marc Glass (PDF of the magazine layout)

After completing her 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift, police officer Jennifer Cramer ’07 got what she deserved: a good day’s sleep.

And slept well she did on this particular Wednesday, after an unusually busy night of patrolling. Within three hours, Cramer responded to a noise complaint, a domestic-assault call and a suspicious-person report that led to discovery of a minor unconscious from an overdose of prescription pills and alcohol.

“Last night was a lot more like a Friday or Saturday night,” Cramer explains matter-of-factly. “Drug- and alcohol-related crimes start to increase toward the end of the week in all communities.”



Cramer, who joined the Rumford Police Department in October 2007, was still adjusting to patrolling nights after 18 weeks of training at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy. The 5-foot, 32-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran graduated second in her class after winning the cohort’s marksmanship award; achieving top combined marks in driving, shooting, physical fitness and “practicals” (graded responses to crime-scene simulations); and setting a new Academy female push-up record. It’s all enough to make one want to shout, “You go, girl!” but Cramer’s seriousness of purpose stifles the impulse.

“I’ve been lucky,” she says, when asked about the risks of arresting suspects, most packing at least a 100-pound advantage. Barely taller than her Ford Crown Victoria police cruiser, Cramer says she doesn’t think about the size differential between her and suspects. Success and safety, she explains, are more a consequence of demonstrating “command presence.”

“You can’t underestimate what someone in a fight-or-flight situation will do,” she says. “But I have the intuition to see where a person’s mind is and to say what I have to say to de-escalate the situation. You have to take your ego out of it, but at the same time tell yourself, ‘One way or the other, I’m going to win.’”

Cramer says she has pepper spray and a Taser to aid in the goal of not “getting physical.” When asked why she didn’t mention her sidearm, a standard-issue Sig Sauer P229 40-caliber handgun, and the 12-gauge shotgun mounted to the ceiling of her cruiser, Cramer stiffens ever so slightly.

“I’m not going to draw my weapon unless I’m in a deadly force situation,” she says. “Some officers think ‘I’m a super-hero. Nothing’s going to happen to me.’ I don’t. If I get the sense a suspect is going to get weird on me, I call for back up.”

In the chaos theory of police work, even the most routine traffic stop can lead to myriad outcomes: issuing a speeding ticket; conducting a field-sobriety test; making an arrest on an outstanding warrant; or discovering a cache of illegal drugs. If all goes well, Cramer’s every radioed report of 10-92 (police code for officer on scene) is followed by 10-8 (officer clear from scene).

“You have to go home after the shift,” she says. “That’s the guiding rule.”



Stress is as much a constant as strong coffee. Cramer recalls some incidents with happy outcomes, such as the time she prevented a young woman from committing suicide from a Rumford bridge (by tackling her to the ground when de-escalating talk wasn’t working). “Months later, she yelled to me on the street to come over and meet her family,” Cramer explains. “She still thanks me.”

But there are many unhappy endings. Cramer provides those details, too (none of which can be uttered in polite conversation or, for that matter, printed here). The grislier the account, the more composed she becomes.

“Nothing really traumatic has happened to me, personally,” she says. “It’s the accumulation of many different calls that involve people living cursed lives because of drugs and alcohol that can get to you.”

Good friends who work outside law enforcement (“so you’re not always talking about work”) help Cramer deal with the stress of police work. “You also increase your threshold to it. Not that you’re without compassion,” she explains. “You just build up a shell to cope with it day in and day out.”

Cramer developed that shell long before her career in law enforcement. After graduating from Catherine McAuley High School in Portland, she traded her private-school uniform for Marine Corps fatigues. In four years of service, she attained the rank of sergeant and was the first-in-squadron female crew chief for a CH-53E Sikorsky Super Stallion, the Marine Corps’ $25-million helicopter configured to carry 55 combat-ready troops. Her responsibilities included serving as her helicopter’s head mechanic for training operations at Marine Corps Air Station New River near Jacksonville, N.C., as well as in the Mediterranean Sea, Kosovo and Israel.

After earning a degree in environmental science at UMF (where younger sister Emily ’08 earned a B.F.A. in creative writing) Cramer was again drawn to serve—this time in law enforcement. Although she was recently deputized as a member of the Oxford County Sheriff’s Department (in order to participate in a border patrol program with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security), Cramer is making plans for a new assignment as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Until she trades rural community policing for sustainable agricultural development in a faraway land, Cramer draws satisfaction from her workaday connections.

“People come up to me all the time and say, ‘It’s so nice to see a woman on the force,’” she says. “I know a lot of women victims feel more comfortable talking with a woman police officer. It feels good when I can be part of solutions that make the community safer.”