Spring Issue

“to take care of myself.”
As the only female on the shift, she worked
hard to earn the respect of her male colleagues
and the community.
“Just because you’re small doesn’t mean you
can’t do anything,” said Spencer.
“Anything” included waiting four nights for
the body of a 30-year-old drowning victim to
wash up on the shore and calling for backup to
help bring him in, she said.
She moved to Hopatcong in 2017 to be
reunited with her now husband, Michael, who
moved back to New Jersey earlier that year to
take a job with the Port Authority of New York
and New Jersey. Together they have a 9-monthold
son, Sawyer.
In addition to parenting and writing, she
is anxiously awaiting the results of her state
civil service exam so she
can put on a uniform
again, preferably for
her new hometown of
Hopatcong.
“I want to work in
the community where I
live and be closer to my
son,” she said.
In 2018, Spencer
published her second
police-themed book:
“Pawl the Police Dog:
The first book, self published in 2016.
“It was such a surreal
and beautiful moment.
Seeing someone lifeless,
hopeless—begging for
them to come back to
life and then—after you
think all hope is gone—he
survives and goes on to live
life to the fullest.”
Catching Clawse” (Amazon: $11.07),
which was picked up by Mascot
Books. This book introduces a
villain, Clawse
the cat, who
made off with
the office gold
fish. The book
was dedicated
to the Port
Authority Police
Department.
“The goal of each
book is for kids
to earn a part of a
uniform,” she said.
Upon completion of the first book, the reader
is rewarded with a piece of a police uniform
that they can cut out. By the end of “Catching
Clawse,” they earn a police badge, Spencer said.
“When I do my book signings I always give
the kids a play badge that they can wear,” she
said.
“Catching Clawse” and “Pawl the Police Dog”
have made their way across the country to the
Los Angeles Police Department, she said, and
even overseas to Great Britain.
She also totes them to her husband’s
department hockey games where she sets up
shop for book signings, donating $5 per book to
the Port Authority PBA Widows’ and Children’s
Fund.
As the first police officer
in her family, she said her
family was terrified for
her every night. She now
feels the same way about
her husband. “If either
of us were in trouble [as
partners], we would be
there as backup,” she
said. “Now I hear about
it two hours later.”
Spencer is currently
working on her third
The second in the series, published
in 2018.
book, “Beach Patrol
Pawl.”
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