Since joining the police force in 1976, Police Chief Nan Hegerty has trailblazed a path for women through the field of law enforcement.

Twelve years ago, she became the police department's first female captain, and in 1994, President Clinton appointed her to run the state's eastern district office of the U.S. Marshall Service. All of this led up to Nov. 18, 2003, when Hegerty was sworn in as Milwaukee's 17th chief of police and the city's first female chief.

But according to Hegerty, gender is superfluous. "I think that someone in this position is not unlike the CEO of a large corporation, so I don't really think that gender has anything to do with it," she says. "But I'll tell you this: I'm very passionate about this job. I'm very passionate about the Milwaukee Police Department and I'm passionate about the city of Milwaukee."

OMC: As the chief of police, what is your greatest responsibility?

Nan Hegerty: I am responsible for the safety and security of the citizens of the City of Milwaukee. Not only that, but I'm responsible for the safety and security of the police department's most important assets and that's the men and women on the force.

OMC: Originally, you said you could implement most of your changes within the first year. What have you implemented so far and what's ahead?

NH: Actually, now that I'm here and doing some of these things, I think that that was a little ambitious. There are some things that can be implemented very quickly and I've done a number of those things, like some policies and procedures that made the work of the officers easier.

Some of the long-term things are an early intervention system, which is a disciplinary system whereby, when certain behaviors crop up with an officer time and time again, it's going to red flag that officer and give us the opportunity to look at that officer as far as what's going on in his or her life or his or her assignment that they're getting these red flags coming up periodically. In that way, we cold move in with early intervention: counseling, training, perhaps employee assistance if it's a family problem that's affecting their work, rather than waiting until it gets to such a point down the line that we have to remove the officer from duty or suspend the officer. Something like that takes a long time. Number one, it takes a great deal of money to purchase the software. Number two, we have to work through the fire and police commissions and the unions in order to implement it and it's going to take quite a bit of work. Like I said, some of the things are easier and can be done much more quickly than others.

OMC: You've often said that crime is not a police problem, rather crime is a community problem. Could you elaborate on this?

NH: The police don't commit the crimes; the people that live in the community commit the crimes. Therefore, it is a community problem, not police problem. The police don't work in a vacuum. We have to work with the community in order to solve these crimes. We need cooperation from the community, we need information from the community and along with that, the community depends on us to look at crimes and create a safe environment. So we really need to respect each other. The police need to respect the community and the community needs to respect the police.

This goes along with my whole attitude of 'we are a professional police department' and I'm certainly getting the word out and getting it to the officers that are interacting with the community to let them know that that's what I expected: a very professional performance on their part.