‘Community Conversations’ With Brittany Powell, EPD Crime Analyst

Press release from the City of Eureka:

I’m Brittany Powell and I’m the Crime Analyst for the Eureka Police Department. And I’ve worked here for about 10 years.

I do many things, I have a lot of different jobs here at the police department. I started as a police service officer, and then I was promoted to administrative technician and now crime analyst. I also handle public information, and am the budget analyst. I put on events, do all the purchasing and budgeting for the department, and tie up all the loose ends.

One of my favorite parts of my job is putting on community events like this one here, Ice Cream with a Cop, Shop with a Cop. We do Hoops and Heroes, many different events, and it really is a good building exercise for officers to get to know our local youth. Today’s our seventh annual Ice Cream with a Cop. We like to host it at a different park every year to get different community members that live in different neighborhoods to get out, meet officers, have some free ice cream. Living the Dream has been awesome and they partner with us every year. This year we have Community Services here in input for the new 20/30 Park that they’re going to revamp. And again, this event is just a fun way to get out with the community.

Hoops and Heroes – with COVID we haven’t had it in a while – but that one we partner with Zane Middle School. Police officers and dispatchers play against middle schoolers in basketball, and it’s just a fundraiser for their PTA.

Shop with a Cop is one of our most popular events. We partner officers with local youth and it’s a day to get to know them, get to know each other on a personal level. And then we take them to Target where they get a hundred dollars for a shopping spree to buy whatever they want to.

I was actually raised in Eureka, went to Cutten Ridgewood School, went to Winship and Eureka High. I was voted 2005’s most school spirited. I’d like to think I’m also one of Eureka’s most spirited. I went to Chico State and got my degree in criminal justice and immediately got hired back here, moved back home. My husband’s also from Eureka as a Humboldt Bay firefighter, and we love living here. We have a three-year-old daughter and I love my job with Eureka Police.

Most of our family is in Eureka. So we have that home base. My parents in law, they run a family daycare that our daughter gets to go to. We have all of our friends here and we love the ocean, the activities. And I don’t know – this is our home.

We’re always welcoming volunteers. We’re always hiring. We have dispatch, police officers, animal control. There’s many opportunities out here. Check out our website, EurekaPD.net. Tons of opportunities. You can message me on Facebook, I run our social media and I can hook you up. We have volunteer abatement. We have volunteers that go out and do vacation checks for people who go out of town. So many opportunities! I’d love to help you connect.

One of the really awesome things I get to be involved at the police department – I get the community side, I get the administrative side, but I also have really great friends and coworkers, my fellow police officers and criminal investigators. My office is actually with the investigators. So I get to, you know, kind of get a little piece of knowing what’s going on, help them out as much as possible. It’s just a really fun job and I really enjoy it.