After 25 years of service with the Stockton Police Department, Anabel Morris has been promoted to deputy chief.
Her promotion marks a historic milestone, making Morris the first Latina woman in the department to hold the position.
Throughout the years, Morris has spent her career moving through rankings, each time rising higher, and is optimistic that her legacy can show others what they can achieve.
“It’s important for me to open those doors for others; whether it be Latina young ladies, gentlemen or anyone else in the community so that they know that there are other opportunities,” Morris said.
First generation Mexican-American
Morris is a product of Merced County and is a first generation Mexican-American. Her father was from Michoacan, while her mother was raised in Guadalajara.
Growing up, Morris was a witness to what the life of agriculture workers entailed, the strains it came with, and what it was like being raised in the farm labor community.
“The profession you go into is something typically that you are familiar with or that you see,” Morris said. “From my perspective, at that young age of 8-years-old, I could see myself working at a super market, see myself working in agriculture because that’s all I knew.”
Morris said becoming deputy chief — especially as a Latina woman — is an exciting chance to serve as a role model for Stockton youth. Morris believes young people shouldn’t be afraid to find mentors within their community.
“Hopefully they can see themselves within me to understand that it’s important to become familiar with other professions and to ask for help, seek mentors,” she said.
Becoming part of the police department
It was in the late 1990s when Morris was introduced to the field of law enforcement and began testing and taking part in the department’s trainee program.
Morris said she was able to attend the police academy with the help of the department’s trainee program. Police recruits are full time employees and the department funds the academy during the six months of the academy.
She joined the police department on Jan. 2, 2001, kicking off her career in public service.
Now, with more than two decades of being on the force, she said she has had ample opportunity to work different assignments to prepare her for the new role.
Some have included being a patrol officer, community police officer, field training officer and school resource officer.
In 2016, she was promoted to sergeant. In 2021, she rose to the rank of lieutenant and last year advanced to captain.
“You really get to know how each area works and why it’s important for our department,” Morris said. “It really prepares you to be a well rounded individual so that you can better assist the community, but also internally our personnel.”
Morris said 26 years ago, there were about 10 to 15 women in the organization when she started her career.
Now, she said the department has significantly tripled or quadrupled that number, something she feels is important.
“We (women) bring a different perspective, different thought process, it’s important to have our thought process whether it’s compassion, empathy,” Morris said.
She said she believes that the department should reflect the community and “us as women, we reflect that.”
Goals as deputy chief
In her new role, Morris said she would like to continue to build on the work of her predecessor, who was great with personnel, built relationships with the community, was big on transparency, and built relationships with different community groups.
“I am grateful to have had that opportunity (to see her predecessor’s work) because now I continue to build upon that so that hopefully I can continue the role that he was growing and building those relationships,” she said. “I know a significant amount of people in the community, but my goal and my hope is that I can continue that and really flourish those relationships.”
Some different approaches Morris would like to take to make the role more of her own is not only to focus on relationships, but to also to leverage the technology component of the job and consistently recruit.
She said it matters deeply to her to recruit locally while also reaching communities like the military.
“Whether it’s local, state, or outside the state I believe we all have something to offer,” Morris said.
A message Morris said she wanted the community to hear from her is that safety is a shared responsibility.
While the department has training and the staff and safety component, she said they need the community to partake.
“We truly believe that relationship building is the foundation of what we are attempting to do, but without those relationships, we cannot be successful,” Morris said.
Record reporter Victoria Franco covers public safety in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at vfranco@gannett.com. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on The Record: Stockton PD’s first Latina deputy chief hopes to inspire local youth
Reporting by Victoria Franco, The Stockton Record / The Record
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