Jazz Silva: Life experiences lead to career in law enforcement

Jazzlyn Silva had some bumpy times when she was young. The help she got to get through those times influenced her choice of career.

“I originally picked law enforcement because I had a lot of instances of trauma in my childhood and police officers were oftentimes the saviors, or the people that would show up on scene,” she said. “I just saw them as a helpful resource.”

She wanted to do that for others, she said. Silva, 30, is a five-year veteran of the Quincy Police Department and was promoted to detective earlier this year. Making detective was one of her goals, she said, and she was promoted before her 30th birthday.

“I guess I just always saw (being promoted to) detective as the end goal,” she said. “So now I have to come up with another goal. I reached it a lot quicker than I thought I could.”

But her first step into law enforcement and the criminal justice system was as a teacher in Spokane – in a challenging classroom.

“I worked at a behaviorally intensive school, with group home kids and foster home kids,” she said. “I went there because I didn’t know if I wanted to work with juveniles or adults.

“I really loved it, but I knew I could be doing more. Doing the police work allows me to work with juveniles, but also adults. The best of both worlds.”

Before being promoted to detective Silva was a QPD patrol officer.

A native of Bend, Oregon, Silva said she met her husband Devan while attending Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. Devan Silva, now an instructor with the Quincy School District, is originally from Spokane.

Deciding what she wanted to do involved a lot of research, and she looked at various law enforcement careers.

“I really had no clue what I wanted to do, I just knew law enforcement in general was an interest,” she said. “Through my high school years, I went and interviewed people that held those positions, cold case investigators, FBI agents and people that worked in the sheriff’s department.”

She got some counterintuitive advice.

“The first thing they told me was, ‘Don’t go get a criminal justice degree.’ And I (said), ‘Really? That’s so weird. I thought I was supposed to get a criminal justice degree.’ And they said, ‘That is all we get, so be that unique person who has something else to offer.’ So I went and got a bachelor’s in creative writing and a minor in art,” she said.

She recommended that people who are thinking about law enforcement careers should do that research too.

“One hundred percent, go on ride-alongs. Make sure that you get a feel for where you want to work, or if you don’t know where you want to work, get a feel on ride-alongs in those different environments. Because (working for) city versus county versus small towns – they’re vastly different in comparison,” she said.

She also recommended reserve programs for people who are thinking about law enforcement careers, but aren’t sure yet.

Taking the teaching job also was part of that process of deciding what she wanted to do. Once she decided on law enforcement, there were other choices to make.

“All right, I want to be a cop, but where do I want to be a cop?” she said.

Getting to the QPD started with a physical agility test.

“It gives you the opportunity to send your test scores to any agency that’s hiring,” she said. “And Quincy was there recruiting. I had never heard of Quincy, had no idea where it was. But I applied for it and they were the first to pick me up. So I’ve stuck with them since.”

She had done the research, she said, so she had some idea about the realities of law enforcement. But some things did surprise her.

“It’s surprising how much actually goes on that you’re not aware happens,” she said. “There’s just so much that happens, between animal calls, domestic (disturbances), suspicious people, vehicle prowl. There’s just so much that goes into the call ratio, into the thought processes when you go out, that you wouldn’t think of as a citizen, going about your day.”

In addition, she was coming into a profession that’s overwhelmingly male.

“I was also super-nervous about the comparison of going into a male-dominated field as a female, and how that would be taken by fellow coworkers,” she said.

But that hasn’t been a problem in Quincy.

“I went in thinking, ‘Okay, nobody’s going to like a female being here.’ And I was pleasantly surprised that wasn’t the case. I’ve definitely encountered people through other agencies or other trainings that aren’t very pro-female. But at least within Quincy, they’re extremely pro-female and very supportive. So I never came into Quincy feeling like I wasn’t accepted or valued.”

She started as a patrol officer, working around town at all hours of the day. Her longer term goal was to be a detective.

“I always wanted to do cold cases,” she said. “I always thought that was super-intriguing.

“As time went on with being an officer, I was like, ‘No, I still think I really want to do detective work. Major Crimes opened up, and I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s what I want to do.’

“I honestly wasn’t quite sure I would get it,” she said. “I knew I stood a chance, but there were people who have more years on (the police force) than me.”

There were three detective jobs open, and Silva was promoted to one of them.

Smaller-town law enforcement – Quincy has about 8,000 people – has a little different dynamic from law enforcement agencies in cities, or in counties with large geographic areas.

“For the county, it takes a longer time for somebody to arrive as backup to help someone out, where here in Quincy it’s less than two minutes for another officer to arrive to help you out. I like the team cohesiveness to it,” she said.

Her own experiences have helped her when it comes to working with victims, she said.

“Coming from previous trauma, I know how a trauma brain works,” she said.

Silva said those experiences give her an idea how victims are feeling, even if her circumstances were different.

“I like to say that it’s probably I have the more sympathetic, empathetic side of me, where I can relate to victims and hear them, and make them know they’re being heard,” she said.

Detective work can be a long-term endeavor, and sometimes that’s frustrating, she said. Sometimes an incident encountered on patrol can be resolved quickly, but a detective can be picking up an investigation that went cold half a decade ago, she said. In another way that’s part of its appeal.

“There’s a lot to it,” she said. “I like the puzzle hunting piece of it, to be able to fit those pieces together and get the grand picture.”

And it’s satisfying to give victims and their families answers to their questions, although it’s frustrating when justice is elusive, she said.

“It can be tough, especially when you can’t give them the justice that you think they deserve, but there’s no evidence to give them that,” she said.

It’s a demanding job, one that doesn’t always stop for personal life. And Silva said some parts of it can be difficult. But a successful conclusion to an investigation is rewarding, she said.

“Seeing the end result of conviction makes it 100% worth it,” she said.