When she was 12, she needed to be a physician, a surgeon.
That is a far cry from police detectives, which exhibits the place 19 years of various experiences can take somebody.
Kara Pearce of Loudonville immediately serves as a detective for the Ashland Metropolis Police Division, fairly a leap from her authentic police place as a component time dispatcher for the Ashland County Sheriff’s Workplace in 2010.
The daughter of Vickie Kahl, Pearce grew up in Loudonville and graduated from Loudonville Excessive in 2009.
From hearth division to Sheriff’s Workplace to Loudonville PD and again once more
“My first place in public service started in August after I graduated from highschool, once I joined the Loudonville Hearth Division and commenced coaching to turn out to be a firefighter and emergency medical technician,” Pearce mentioned. “I joined with my cousin, Jen Pearce (now Mosher). Whereas in coaching with the hearth division, I picked up the half time dispatcher place with the Sheriff’s Division in August of 2010. That piqued my curiosity in legislation enforcement.”
In February 2011, she moved from the Sheriff’s Workplace to a full-time place as a dispatcher with the Loudonville police, after which went again to the Sheriff’s Workplace after they employed her full time. At that time, she was satisfied that legislation enforcement was the profession she needed to pursue, so she entered the police academy.
She graduated from the academy in April 2013, and was employed by Loudonville Police Chief Kevin Taylor as a component time patrolman a month later, and have become full time in December 2013.
Whereas with the LPD, Pearce was introduced with a particular life saving award when she bodily prevented a lady from committing suicide, holding her from leaping off the Wooden Road bridge.
She transferred from the Loudonville to Ashland Police Division in December 2016, serving as a patrolman till April of this yr when she was promoted to detective.
The highway has led to detectives with Ashland PD
“Being a detective is wonderful,” Pearce mentioned. “You get entangled in various attention-grabbing issues that are not a part of being a patrolman. We get in depth training in topics like crime scene evaluation, forensic interviewing, and murder investigation. I am concerned in plenty of very attention-grabbing circumstances, issues I can not actually speak about as a result of they’re nonetheless a part of open investigations.”
She hasn’t been straight concerned in homicide circumstances but, by means of which she has handled little one abuse and sexual assaults.
She additionally inherited a police group service enterprise from one in every of her detective predecessors, Kim Mager, who retired earlier this yr. That’s the Store With A Cop program, the place legislation enforcement officers from all county businesses store for toys with county youth.
At this yr’s Store With A Cop occasion Dec. 10, legislation enforcement distributed toys bought with over $44,000 in donations to 270 youth, the occasion organized by Pearce.
She was additionally chosen because the Legislation Enforcement Officer of the Month for November by county Prosecutor Christopher Tunnell.
Sheserves with Lt. John Simmons, Sgt. Curt Dorsey, narcotics officers Kody Hying and Brad Scarl and fellow detective James Coey. Coey, additionally of Loudonville, was promoted to the detective bureau the identical time as Pearce.
A spot the place she will make a distinction
Requested why she likes police work, she answered “I could make a distinction with an entire lot of individuals. Typically our contact is instantaneous, and typically it is in depth, however I’ve discovered that there are issues that I can do that may change individuals’s lives. When that occurs, and it is a optimistic consequence, it is a tremendous expertise.”
When she will not be working, Pearce, who lives in Loudonville, spends plenty of time along with her boyfriend, Brad Bilancini, a member of the Wooster Hearth Division.
“His household has a farm outdoors of city that we’ve constructed a log cabin on, and we actually get pleasure from spending time there,” she mentioned.
She additionally says plenty of studying, “mysteries and true crimes,” she smiles.
This text initially appeared on Ashland Occasions Gazette: Loudonville native wears detective badge for Ashland Police Division