PATERSON — Evelyn Gonzalez estimates she has responded to about 100 incidents involving crime suspects armed with guns, knives or other weapons during her 16 years as a Paterson police officer.

Gonzalez knows all too well the perils of the job, as well as its rewards. So naturally, she had mixed feelings when her daughter, Waleska Herrera, decided to join the city’s police force.

“I’m proud of her. I’m happy she made the decision,” said Gonzalez, 46. “But then, the mother side of me is like, ‘Why couldn’t she pick something else? Something less dangerous.’ ”

Herrera, 24, had a quick retort for her mother’s ambivalence.

“You shouldn’t have told me how much you love the job,” Herrera said. “You made me into the woman I am today, so don’t worry too much.”

In a profession where father-and-son cops are somewhat cliché, Gonzalez and Herrera recently became Paterson’s first mother-and-daughter police officers.

Detective Sgt. Evelyn Gonzalez and her daughter, Paterson police officer Waleska Herrera are the first mother-daughter pair in the department’s history. Gonzalez began on the Paterson police department force in 2005 and Herrera graduated from the academy in March 2021.
City officials said it was only a matter of time, as the number of female police officers increased in recent decades.

“They’re the first, but they’re definitely not going to be the last,” said Mayor Andre Sayegh.

“I believe police work is generational,” said Paterson Public Safety Director Jerry Speziale, whose own son is a cop in the city. “Some kids want to emulate what their parents do. They see them in the uniform all those years and they want to follow in their footsteps. It’s a very proud moment.”

Gonzalez estimated there were about 20 female officers in Paterson when she joined the Police Department in 2005. Now, 61 of Paterson’s 395 cops are women, or 16% of the force, officials said.

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Gonzalez has worked on patrol most of her career and moved into the Internal Affairs division after being promoted to sergeant last November. Sayegh said Gonzalez was one of three women promoted to sergeant in that ceremony, the first time so many female officers got bumped up a rank at the same time.

Detective Sgt. Evelyn Gonzalez and her daughter, Paterson police officer Waleska Herrera are the first mother-daughter pair in the department’s history. Gonzalez began on the Paterson police department force in 2005 and Herrera graduated from the academy in March 2021.
Gonzalez, a single mom, said she was the first in her family to pursue a career in law enforcement and made $19,500 as a rookie cop in Paterson. She said she had been earning twice as much money as a substitute teacher, but thought joining the Police Department was a better career move.

Herrera was 9 years old at the time and excited about her mother’s new profession. “It thought it was cool,” the daughter said. “I didn’t have any friends whose parents were police officers. It was different.”

The mother came home with inspiring stories about police work. “She mainly talked about the good things that happened,” Herrera recalled. “She didn’t talk too much about the dangerous things. She didn’t want me to worry.”

At William Paterson University, Herrera chose a double major: criminal justice and women’s gender studies. She said she became convinced it was important to have women do police work. In her class at the police academy, four of the 19 Paterson recruits were women, Herrera said.

The mother and daughter live together in Paterson’s People’s Park neighborhood. After each day of academy training, the daughter would come home and tell her mother about what she learned, and the mother would advise her daughter on how the training applied to the real-life demands of the job.

Detective Sgt. Evelyn Gonzalez and her daughter, Paterson police officer Waleska Herrera are the first mother-daughter pair in the department’s history. Gonzalez began on the Paterson police department force in 2005 and Herrera graduated from the academy in March 2021.
Herrera showed her mother a video of her performance in a training drill in which recruits must complete a series of physical tasks after getting a chemical agent sprayed in their faces. Gonzalez had gone through the same ordeal about 16 years ago.

“Your eyes are burning so much it’s hard to keep them open,” the mother said.

“I really couldn’t see,” the daughter recalled. “I did a lot of it blind.”In many ways, Gonzalez has been preparing her daughter for police work most of her life.

“She would always tell me, ‘Be aware of your surroundings,’ ” Herrera recalled.

During her first six weeks on the job, Herrera has been assigned to the department’s new walking patrols that pair up veteran officers with rookies. The initiative is part of Paterson’s community policing unit, an attempt to build relationships with city residents and an effort to provide a sense of security with the presence of uniformed officers in high-crime areas.

While her daughter is out on the streets, Gonzalez is assigned to IA work inside at police headquarters. Calls come over the police radio about action on the streets, but Gonzalez said she doesn’t listen in to see if her daughter is involved in anything.

“I try not to overthink it,” the mother said. “I know she’s going to be OK.”

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