Retired Black, Female Assistant Chief of CHP Pens Personal Story of Triumph.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Oct. 26, 2021 – PRLog — Jonni Redick, former Assistant Chief of the California Highway Patrol, debuts memoir Black, White, and Blue, Surviving the Sifting, highlighting her personal journey from clerical worker to Assistant Chief of one of the nation’s largest state police agencies in her 29-year career. Following an interview on the lack of equity for African American women in law enforcement, she realized how relevant her story was to more than just herself. Within the pages, Redick accounts moments of trial and triumph in hopes to encourage women to rise.
“Looking at my life, I never could have seen this trajectory for myself,” author Redick shares. “We all have choices, and those choices create pathways to our potential. The beauty of life is that we can all rise, regardless of where we start.”
In a period ripe with racial tensions and strayed relationships between civilians and law enforcement, Black, White and Blue, Surviving the Sifting, Jonni Redick shares her personal story of rising through the ranks from county clerical worker to breaking through the “less-than-one-
“Not many folks choose to don a police officer’s uniform every day to go out and face uncertainty veiled within the lines of humanity. We are people just like those we encounter. There is no perfection in policing. There is only the space between discernment and discretion – individually and collectively in any given moment.” (Excerpt)
Having not seen many Black or female officers rise through the ranks as often as their counterparts, her struggle with personal identity as mixed race followed her from childhood throughout her career. She recalls, with honest yet humorous prose, the struggles she endured with her own racial identity and the battle of being a black woman within law enforcement. Her exposure to other minority women in law enforcement, or “unicorns” as she refers to them, gave her a budding strength that grew over time and helped her to push herself further in her career.
As a woman of faith, Redick leans into her personal relationship with building her faith and openly shares how God helped her through times of turmoil both in her personal life and on the job. She explains how she was sifted, built up and renewed, and how her faith carried her through. Redick writes, “What I now know is how God was sifting me, cultivating a new me in the journey and as God was teaching, in the classroom and in my life, I was becoming more spiritually mature and finding my place in the world, in my organization, in my leadership.”
“What a motivating story… it is relatable to all in that it speaks to being different, having a difficult upbringing, faith, and facing obstacles,” shares Dr. Shebrena Hanna, Federal Agent with the Department of Homeland Security.
Black, White, and Blue, Surviving the Sifting is 272 pages and is now available on Amazon. It is a balanced autobiography and personal memoir with traces of personal growth, law enforcement, cultural truths, and Christian faith. This is Redick’s first publication with Curry Brothers Publishing.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jonni Redick retired as an Assistant Chief after a 29-year career with the California Highway Patrol (CHP). She went from country clerical worker to being responsible for a large multi-billion-