The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund

OFFICER OF THE MONTH - MAY 1998

DEPUTY LINDA FINNEY
MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY'S
BUREAU OF CRIMINAL APPREHENSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) has announced the selection of Special Agent In Charge (SAIC) Linda Finney of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) as Officer of the Month for May 1998.

According to NLEOMF Chairman Craig W. Floyd, "SAIC Finney has never backed down from a challenge and she has set the highest standards possible for her profession."

As a young woman fresh out of college in 1970, Linda Finney, armed with a BA in Early Childhood Education, believed her chosen career was teaching. For two years she taught the children of migrant workers in Belle Glade, Florida. In 1972 she decided to go home to Miami, Florida. There were no teaching jobs available and the resilient young woman decided to become a police officer as an interim measure until she could find a position as a teacher. Fortunately for law enforcement, Linda Finney decided that enforcing the law and helping people was what she was supposed to do. "I knew by the time I completed the academy that this was my career choice, and I decided to stay," she said.

In 1973 she became a police officer in the Metro-Dade Police Department of Dade County, Florida, and for the next 25 years Ms. Finney has devoted her life to law enforcement and continues to make outstanding contributions to the profession.

She quickly rose through the ranks of patrol officer and investigator, making sergeant in 1979. In 1983 she was appointed Police Commander and one of the results of her years in internal security was the development of the Employee Profile & Early Identification System for the Internal Review Section. This successful program looks for problems and accomplishments of police officers and is still being used today in the Metro-Dade Police Department. In 1983 she was also promoted to Lieutenant and became the highest ranking African-American woman ever to serve in the department.

In 1986 Ms. Finney relocated to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, where she encountered one of the most difficult investigations of her career. Two serial rapists were terrorizing the Minneapolis area for two years and 18 women had been brutalized. When the Minneapolis Police Department asked for assistance, Ms. Finney was assigned to the case. "I was one of several investigators assigned to the case, but through good investigative work we were able to arrest and convict the two men," she said.

A highly decorated officer, Linda Finney has received the International Association of Women Police's Mentoring Award and was named Woman of the Year by the Minnesota Association of Women Police. She has devoted her life to making a difference.

"She is one of those remarkable people that you are fortunate to have in the agency because of her integrity and her dedication to duty," says BCA Superintendent Nicholas O'Hara. "Her everyday performance holds her above the crowd."

Linda Finney is no stranger to personal tragedy. After surviving breast cancer, she added the fight against breast cancer to her numerous community activities. "She never stopped working through her illness either for law enforcement or her community." said Superintendent O'Hara.