A Police Chief’s Calling

A child gets told, flat out, that being a police officer is “not a career for a young lady.” Chief Angela Green didn’t just ignore that message, she outworked it. We talk with Florence’s new Chief of Police about what it really takes to lead in a male-dominated profession, why her faith and upbringing shaped her style of servant leadership, and how becoming a single mother early forced her to build resilience fast. Her journey runs from Union, New Jersey to a six-month Virginia police academy, up the ranks to captain, and into multiple chief roles before landing in Florence, South Carolina.

We also get practical about modern policing and public trust. Chief Green explains how her legal background helps officers think through civil rights, privacy, and the real-world consequences of decisions made in seconds. Then we dig into police technology and AI, including how drones can improve response times and officer safety. She shares a striking real example where a drone helped identify armed teens gathering near a park as school buses were about to arrive, giving officers the information they needed to intervene and get guns off the street.

From there, we zoom in on her vision for the Florence Police Department: evidence-based proactive policing, crime analysis, and being laser focused on known offenders rather than blanketing whole neighborhoods. We also talk community policing that shows up in everyday life, from “Coffee With a Cop” to community walks, youth engagement plans, and partnerships that help vulnerable seniors during extreme heat. If you care about smart public safety, police transparency, and what real community partnership looks like, hit play, then subscribe, share this with a neighbor, and leave a review with what you want to hear next.

Transcript

Welcome And Chief Green’s Path

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Native Drums. I'm your host, Jocelia Williams, and today I have a very special guest with me. Ah, the Chief of Police for the City of Florence. Hello, Chief Green. Hi, how are you doing, ma'am? Oh, great, oh great. Chief Angela Green.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

And um, Chief Green, welcome to Florence.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Oh, happy to be here. Thank you. And thank you for allowing me to come here on this podcast and speak with you.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Oh, yes, it's our pleasure, our pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Now, let's uh tell our viewers, let's get a little bio on you, you know, um, about your your childhood, from whence you come and where you're from, native of absolute New Jersey.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

So, born and raised in New Jersey, Union, New Jersey, for those fellow New Jerseyans that know a little bit about New Jersey. So, born and raised in Jersey, and then came down to Richmond, Virginia in about 2001 to be a police officer. Okay. So started my career in the City of Richmond Police Department in Virginia, rose to the ranks there to captain rank, and then I went to the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, more specifically Portsmouth, Virginia, where I was the assistant chief of police and then chief of police in 2019. And then after that, went to Lexington, Virginia, which is more of the mountains of Virginia. Um, VMI and Washington and Lee Universities are in Lexington, Virginia, and I was the chief of police there from about 2021 to 2025, and then went back to Richmond, Virginia. Yes, to work in the Virginia Attorney General's office as the director of organized retail crime over the entire state of Virginia. Wow. Yes, before coming here to beautiful Florence in April of this year, April 1st specifically of 2026. So almost uh going into four months now in

Breaking Barriers In Policing

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Florence.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Right, all right. So so what was it like uh being a woman in law enforcement and moving up in the ranks? What was that like?

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Yes, uh very difficult. Very difficult, as you can imagine. It's already a male-dominated profession, but I'll tell you, my journey as a female coming up in law enforcement was when I left New Jersey to go to Virginia, I knew nobody in Virginia. It was just an easier way to get into law enforcement because ever since I was little, I feel like law enforcement, being a police officer was a call-in on God for me that I always wanted to help people. And I, you know, you have to have that power and authority to really make a difference sometimes. So being a police officer gave me that voice to help people. So when I went to Virginia to start my career as a law enforcement officer, I was a single mother of two children, a four-year-old son and a nine-month-old daughter.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Yes, yes. So talk about struggles already going into the police academy in Virginia. Our police academy is six months long. Versus, put in a little perspective, here in South Carolina, the academy is eight weeks. Wow. Yes. My goodness. Yes, so Virginia is six weeks in a state not familiar with, no support system, no safety net, and having being a single mother, two babies, four years old and nine months old. So my journey started off with a lot of obstacles, a lot of barriers, the system already built against me. But being raised with, I would say, an immigrant mother, and my father, a second-generation immigrant, taught me resilience, work ethic, and just because things are hard, you don't give up. You have to work hard for anything that's worth having. So having that resilience and that grit kept me going through all the adversity and knowing that my children, I it was more than just the job at that point. It was their survival and my survival at that time kept me going through. So with that spirit and tenacity, as I entered into the ranks, I felt just as I told you, the more rank and power you get, it's the more influence to make changes. So I used that as my reason to continue to go up through the ranks. And every time I went up through the ranks, knowing that being a female, there weren't many females in position of power, it was a responsibility to make sure that I would leave a trail that opened the door and kept the door open to make it easier for those that come after me to come into this profession.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Oh, that's powerful. That's powerful. And thank you for that.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

For um, and um, and thanks to your parents. Yes. Yeah, for instilling that into you because um, you know, it could have been another way.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Absolutely, and easily could have gone that way, especially growing up in New Jersey. I was raised, my both of my parents did were high school dropouts, did not graduate from high school. I was the first person in my family to actually go to college and actually earn a degree. So I nobody in my family was a police officer. I did not have that background of where people just kind of fall in because they seen their parents do that. My parents were not educated, they just worked hard and they were good people that obeyed the law and authority. So I saw that in them, and they instilled certain things in me that planted that, see, very God-fearing people as well. So that was always planted in me to always help and to be a servant and to be a servant leader. And I think that helped me break down those barriers too. Of I need to do more with myself if I want to make a difference.

Growing Up Around Addiction And Crime

SPEAKER_00 6:12

So having that background with the parents and that that grit of growing up, I grew up and forgive me for the term I may use, but literally having a crackhead house across the street. So I grew up seeing people addicted to drugs, having friends whose parents were addicted to drugs, seeing officers doing search warrants and arresting people, and we were those people sitting outside on the porch watching what's going on and talking about it. But you know, these these were people's lives.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

That I didn't realize at that age what that impact was, but then using that and coming into policing and seeing that and saying and watching children and families that you can see when people are starting to go down that path. And instead of watching it and waiting to, I got you and let me make an arrest, to be that prevention and be that hope for them and that guidance that once we start seeing that, stopping them and showing them another way in life, because maybe their parents weren't able to instill that because they didn't know how there could be another way. They didn't have hope and they didn't have that guidance, but we don't need to keep that cycle going, but be a part of that solution for individuals looking for a better way and an improved quality of life.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

That's wonderful. That's wonderful that you have that mindset as you come uh, as you have come here to Florence to have that mindset as chief of police and thank God for the seed that your parents planted into you in order because you were walking in your uh your path. Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Like I said, I there was no guidance other than truly that pull from God that this is you. And I and I will tell you because I've told this story before, that individuals that have a dream, vision, and passion, the as you know, the devil will throw any kind of obstacle in your way. Yes. And they need to look at that as a reason to keep going forward. Because if it's hard, that's because the devil knows that God has something planned for you. That's it. Absolutely, and he and he's trying to stop you. If it's something bad, they're gonna let you go. The Satan's gonna let you go and probably move things out of your way because he wants you to go down that dark path.

Career Day Doubt That Never Stuck

SPEAKER_00 8:31

So, and I'm not saying God forgive me that this teacher, my second grade teacher, was part of Satan's plan. But sometimes we we plant things that we don't even know it was the wrong thing to do because we are human beings. But in second grade, my teacher had asked the class, it was career day, everybody stand up, tell the class what you want to be when you grow up. So when my turn came, I'm an eight-year-old, young girl, I stand up in front of the class. As soon as I say, I want to be a police officer, my teacher stops me and says, Angela, that is not a career for a young lady. Go home, think of another career, and come back. I was so embarrassed, the only person that happened to a young, impressionable young woman, and in my heart I'm saying, why? What? What did I do? I don't understand. Why is it not? But I knew I had to come back with an assignment the next day, and hopefully it would be okay and not be embarrassed. And I said, I know I want to do something with crime and order. So I came back and I stood up in front of the class very nervous, hoping it would pass the mustard test. And I said, I want to be a lawyer. My teacher said, Yes, that's good. So from an authoritative figure, my teacher, I got the blessing that being a lawyer as a female was okay. So all through high school, and I went to college with graduating pre-law and political science to go on to be an attorney, to go on to law school, because and working through law firms my entire time in college, because that's planned it now in my head. But again, God said that is not your calling. That's not what I want for you. And I don't know if God did that. I'm sure God did, because He only does life. And forgive me for babbling. Oh no. But I got pregnant on my just before graduating from undergraduate school. And literally walking across, getting my diploma, did not know I was two months pregnant. Working in a law firm, I was guaranteed after I got my degree to have a full-time job in a law firm, working my way up to go with the plan, go straight into law school with this job. Once they found out I was pregnant, that job went away. So here I am, just graduated, young woman, still thinking I'm gonna be a lawyer, planning, and God said, again, no. Many times I even thought about maybe I need to get rid of this baby. My parents even wanted, you're not gonna be able to go to law school. And I didn't go to law school, but I didn't get rid of my child. And I kept thinking there's gotta be something more. I did not come all this way to not continue with my plan to do better and to make a difference. So ended up still getting it, went to another law firm, got a full-time job. And in there again, that calling popped up. In in now I'm still in Jersey, Richmond, Virginia Police Department hiring. Don't know why. But I said, nothing beats a failure but a try. That's right. Put in my application. They started calling. I was like, is this really gonna happen? Started going through the process. And when they offered me that job, I said, I got one of two choices to make. I stay here still working as in this law firm and figuring out do I go to law school or do I go with what my plan always was, that seed that was inside of me and almost deterred for about 20 years. And then I packed it up, took my two babies, went to Virginia. Like I said, there was no turning back, no safety net. Best decision I ever made. 25 years. Here I am now, my my third police chief job, and hopefully every department that I have ever gone in always want to make a positive impact, a positive difference, leave it much better than how I came, change the culture to not just do law enforcement, but to improve people's lives, to make law enforcement much better than the way I stepped into it. What a beautiful story.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Sorry about that. No, no apology at all. You needed to say that. You needed to tell that.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

I hope it'll touch somebody's heart that is feels a calling, but feels like the road is too tough. And if it's too tough, it's because you need to stay in it. It's a reason for it.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Yeah, yeah. Um, you spoke it as a second grader.

unknown 13:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

God instilled that into you. You spoke it whether they received it or not.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

You spoke it, but you walked on into it. And then, and and you know, and it's good for um that you have that law background, the pre-law, and all that's yeah, I'm sure you're able to use that miraculously uh in your career.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Yes, I like you said, everything happens for a reason. It was never for a waste. And with that law experience background, it does help me with the training of the officers. Okay. To to protect them and our public, to think about what you're doing before you do it because of civil rights and privacy concerns, even with technology nowadays and how we use technology, making sure we use it appropriately and that we're not violating people's privacy and civil rights.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

Okay,

Drones, AI, And Responsible Tech

SPEAKER_01 14:09

okay. Now, how is AI playing that?

SPEAKER_00 14:12

So I will say since you touched on that, and that is something that drew me to Florence Police Department as well, is because of technology that they are using. And technology, people think that it's a bad thing, but think about with cell phones and any technology, computers that we have now, most of us that are old enough, that grew up without computers and cell phones, knew that when these technologies started coming in, oh, that's got that's gonna be the downfall of humanity, these video games the kids are playing. But at some point, you're not you're not getting rid of it. We're not going back. So you got to use technology to your advantage. Just like anything in this world, it could be used for evil purposes or for good purposes. So we have to find the positive uses for it. Right. So, Florence, when I applied, was using technology already to our advantage. They were using drones to help with response times and officer safety going out already when officers are not able to get to a scene. I will tell you a real quick story about uh that I'm very proud of how we use drone drones recently that most people don't know about, how these drones can prevent catastrophic incidents from happening. As schools were ending, so we're talking about in May, maybe two, two, three months ago the most, as schools were ending, the schools came to us and said, we're noticing when the bus is dropping off children at a particular park. Kids were fighting. And the school, we've all been there, and the school children are getting in there, last fights before the school. We we know that. You know, some things don't change sometimes. So they asked police officers to show visibility, just be out there with a marked tune it. Obviously, the visibility would stop the fights. We said sure. But we knew calls for service, if we don't have officers because they have to go to another call, say, or burglary or other fight in progress, and they can't be there at that specific time. If there's no presence, things are gonna happen. When so when that would happen, we would send up the drone to go watch what's going on, that if need be, we can call in other officers. So this one particular day we didn't have officers available. So the drones were watching us park. They were watching, and it was unusual that we saw some teenagers, probably around the ages of 14 to 17, an unusual amount, about 10 of them, in the park and on the playground around the time when the buses were about to unload. So while the drone is just watching, seeing what's going on, the young males started pulling up their shirts and pulling out guns. At least four of them had guns. One had an automatic rifle. My goodness. We know nothing good was gonna come with that. While we have four individuals armed with guns waiting around the time when the bus is about to come off with children. So immediately now the drone is able to tell officers as they're coming to the area for officer safety too, but now it's more than four. Like I said, it's at least ten of them. So we know once they see the police officers come, they're gonna scatter. Right. They're gonna run. So now our officers know which individuals they need to focus on that have the weapons, not just for officer safety, but we need to get those weapons off the streets. Right. So when the officers come and the individuals start scattering, again, they are focused on those four individuals, and they were able to arrest all those individuals with the guns. So they were able to get those guns off the street, but more importantly, prevent what possibly would have happened if we did not have that technology out there that helped us with that.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

That's amazing. Yes. That's amazing. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

So when we talk about technology, technology is wonderful for police. We just have to put safeguards up to make sure we use it responsibly. And with talking about Florence Police Department, we are getting more technology to help us. But part of being responsible with that is you will see it come out soon. We are going to get together a technology committee where I will have citizens come in and meet with me quarterly. They are going to work with me on what our policies will look like to show that we are doing audits, review, and safeguards to make sure that police officers aren't misusing that technology, that we are storing it safely, we are sharing it with other and only local law enforcement safely. And they'll be part of that conversation before we get the new technology in on the policy, and we'll meet regularly so we can discuss this, so we can be as transparent as possible. And we're also going to put on our website a technology transport transparency portal where any citizen can go in and look at how we're using technology. They can look at our policies. And it won't be just our technology policy. I'm gonna put all of our police department policies on a website that anybody can go in there and look at use of force policies, vehicle pursuit policies, any of those policies they have an interest in.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Okay, okay, wonderful, wonderful.

Data-Driven Policing With Clear Limits

SPEAKER_01 20:14

So, what is your vision for Florence Police Department as you enter into this position?

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Yes, ma'am. Well, use my past 25 years of law enforcement in mainly Virginia, listen what I've been doing the last three months to what our citizens in Florence want and need from this police department. So literally, we're here at the heels of a restructuring of our police department. Just last week, July 25th, I did a whole reorganization of our police department to help support stratified policing, which is really using evidence-based proactive policing and crime analysis. We just hired a crime analysis person who will be here on site in another less than two weeks, in about a week and a half. And we're gonna use data that will help us focus on locations and individuals, not areas. People tend to in in the past with reactive policing, we just focused on low-income poverty areas and just police and stopped any and everybody. But now what you're doing is most of the times you're stopping people that aren't even involved in crime. And now they're getting a negative perception of our police department. So we're focusing, we're being laser focused on how we reduced crime. We're only going after those individual targets that we know are committing crime in certain areas. And we're keeping our community engagement open that we're communicating with our citizens on what we're doing. And why we're doing it, but we've also enhanced our community engagement unit. We've created a community engagement unit of officers who will do nothing but just focus on positively bridging that gap between law enforcement and a community. One of the things we are going to start with is a boxing program. And we're going to bring much more youth engagements. We're going to be mentoring and a lot more programs to come. But like I said, we just started this not even a week ago. So while we're getting up and running, just some of the things you know with community engagement starting today at 4 o'clock, this is something the mayor, Mayor Lithanya Barnes, and Mayor Pro Tem Jabeli, Councilman Jabailey, a couple of weeks ago when we were going through that a lot of heat, that long stretch of oppressive heat we were feeling, they felt the need for our seniors. That are we making sure our vulnerable seniors in need are getting the air that they need to coolant off that they need.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

So we identified, the police department identified

Community Programs And Senior Heat Relief

SPEAKER_00 23:10

62 vulnerable seniors. We partnered with one of our helping flourish Florence Flourish. Yes. They immediately purchased these Arctic cool fans, 20 of them. Our police department, my community engagement unit, went out and got donations and found money to get the 42 other fans. Starting today, we asked our faith leaders to come along with us. We are going to start giving out and walk into those individuals. So today at 4 o'clock to 5 o'clock, we'll give out a batch of those to those 62. Tomorrow on the 30th, we'll give out another batch, about 20 more individuals, and by Friday, we'll give out the last remaining batch. So we're we're slowly putting things in place to show that we're we're here trying to partner to meet those needs and be that gap in meeting the vulnerable marginalized communities' needs.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

That's wonderful. Touching lives. Absolutely. That's awesome. That is awesome.

How Residents Can Partner With Police

SPEAKER_01 24:16

So now, what can citizens do uh to to uh to help the police department? You know, um sometimes um there's situations and we're quiet about it. And you know, what what is it that that um we as citizens can do in order to support the Florida Police Department?

SPEAKER_00 24:38

Go on our web page. There's phone numbers if you want to call, whether it's our community engagement unit on how to get involved more positively, or if there's information you want to give us about crime going on in your area, you can do that anonymously. We have many ways you can do the detecting anonymously, you can call numbers crime stoppers anonymously to help out that way. We advertise, we're very active on social media, everything we do. We post if you want to come out and meet us. We just had coffee with a cop this Monday, just two days ago at Magnolia Mall. Coffee with a cop? Coffee with a cop at Magnolia Mall. That's cute. And uh, two individuals noticed that, and they came out, they were there bright and early before any of us got there because they wanted to talk about crime in their area. And now we have our officers and our street crimes and narcotics focused in that area. So they came specifically to that event to bring us information about criminal activity they believe is happening in that area. We have monthly community walks in that area that we post all the time on our social media. We have, again, our flyer or Arctic Cool Fan initiative that I just talked about today is posted. If anybody wants to come out and be part of that, it has the location and times of those three events that we're doing just this week alone. And there'll be more. So they can either follow us on social media or go on our website and proactively reach out to us.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Okay, okay. So how often does that coffee with a cop cop? How often does that take place?

SPEAKER_00 26:22

That was the first time that we did that with Magnolia Mole came to us and said, What can we do to partner with you and bring the community? And so we we came up with that. And the monthly community walks, we do that every month. We just did one last Friday. We did our care walk on Clement Street that we do those with faith leaders, social services, and mental health. And we do our monthly community walk. We did that on Pine Street Friday. Oh, okay. So our next community walk will be the end of August. So look out for that.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Oh, okay. All right, wonderful, wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

I like that coffee with a cop. Yes, we'll make sure we'll do another one and get you a flyer so you can come out. Please, please do.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Yeah, so I can announce it as well. Yes. Yeah, we'll love to do that.

unknown 27:12

Yes, ma'am.

Final Thoughts And Farewell

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Well, Chief Green, uh, it has been really uh an honor to have you here on Native Drums. And um your stories have been, oh wow, so powerful. Well, I'm and we know we see the passion that you have for what it is that you do.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

Absolutely. And thank you for doing that and allowing us to get this message out and open, and we want to be transparent and truly bring the community in as a partner with us. So thank you for allowing us to get that message out.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

Our pleasure, our pleasure. And the doors swing open for you to come back at any time.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Yes, like I said, I feel like I'm already a member here as well. You are.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

I tell you, God is telling you something, remember?

SPEAKER_00 27:55

There I know, I know. I've learned my lesson. So listen to God. Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

Uh, all right. Hello, everyone. We are ever so glad that you have been viewing us with us today, uh, this evening, and um, we'll be back next Sunday with more of Native Drums. Thank you for watching and have a great week. Thanks. God bless.