Meet the official: Undersheriff Broadhead

By Crystal Burnezky Robertson reporter@madillrecord. net

Marshall County Undersheriff Latasha Broadhead is serving the community that she grew up in and enjoys spending time with her extended family. With five nieces ranging in ages from 10 to 16, Broadhead is helping to raise two of those

Courtesy photo

nieces.

After a very brief stint in theOklahomaArmyReserve Guard, Broadhead became injured during boot camp, but not wanting to give up her desire to protect and serve, she looked for work that would allow her to do so. Knowing that she wanted to be of service to others, Broadhead started working at the Marshall County Sheriff's office at the jail in December of 2013.

By the beginning of 2015, Broadhead graduated from the Reserve Academy and then by 2016, she completed the full time academy and was on her way to starting her career in the MCSO.

The Madill Record was able to sit down with Undersheriff Broadhead for a short Q&A for the residents of Marshall County to get to know her.

Tell our readers about yourself.

A: I grew up here. I was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma. I lived in Lindsey, Oklahoma for a little while, but I pretty much came here when I was still a small child. Been here on and off since. A lot of my immediate family lives here. I went to Kingston all the way until my senior year. I ended up leaving my senior year and I graduated from Milburn. I played basketball for my brother in law at the time. Basketball was my sport.

After you graduated what did you do from there?

A: After I graduated, I was kind of, I wouldn’t say lost, but I was not sure what I wanted to do with myself. I worked anywhere from fast food to convenience stores, to grocery stores, to yard work. A little bit of everything honestly. But I found my special thing when I started working here at the jail and that is when I realized what I wanted to do with my life.

What was it about the Sheriff’s office that attracted you to wanting to work there?

A: I was actually in the Army Guard. I ended up getting hurt in boot camp so I was discharged from the Army. I still wanted to get into something that was service. Law Enforcement was my goal, but I had to work my way up there. So the easiest route I found that I could make it and to get to where I wanted my end goal to be was starting at the bottom so I started at the bottom at the jail. I wanted to serve, I have always been told that I was a very protective person. I grew up believing that honesty was key. I was raised by my dad, step mom, my mom, and my grandma; but my grandma was the one that was old school discipline. A Lot of things that is frowned upon now days, but you only got one chance and if you didn’t you got your butt whooped, or you got soap in the mouth, or you got the belt and she showed me that just because she was a woman did not mean that she could not hold authority. I am telling you when you made my grandmamadIsawalotofthe grown men in my family run and I wasn’t the fear I wanted. I wanted to show that women can do it on top of just because I am a woman doesn’t mean I am not afraid to run into danger like the men are. I grew up in this county. There are a lot of people in this county that I knew, I went to school with them or they watched me grow up. On the good side and the not so good side of the community and I wanted to do whatever I could to better ourcommunity.Iwantedtobe there to help those people that may have helped me when I was a child. They may have changed my diaper. There is not another county that I wantedtoworkfor.Iwantedto workforthecountythatIgrew up in. I want to help protect them and the only way that I found that I could do that was on the first responders' side. I don’t want to be a fireman, I am claustrophobic. Do not throw me in a house full of flames, I am probably not going to do very well. But I have always liked puzzles too. We are women, we like to snoop, so what best job can you do to use our natural woman traits. Being a cop, we like to investigate. We will go all the way down and find it. I think that was what the biggest thing is, I wanted to help our community. I wanted to put those bad guys away that I saw doing bad stuff when I was a kid and didn’t know it was bad until I got older and realized what the heck they were doing. And it is not just about protecting our community, but community relations is a very big thing. I wanted to show people that just because I wear a badge and a gun does not mean I am a bad person. We are shown in a light of being bad. Because we are cops, people think we are murderers, people think we are racist, and I am far from that. I wanted to show not only our citizens but also the kids. The biggest thing is kids. They learn from adults, they learn from t.v. and I want to show them we are not all bad. There’s bad seeds in every race and there’s bad seeds in every occupation. I wanted to show them there are people out there they can trust. It is hard on days. There are sometimes that people see a cop and they just won’t talk to you because you are a cop. But if they call I am still going to come up and do my job even if they don’t like us, I will still be there to help them. It is the same with the criminals. Just because they have a background doesn’t mean they are a bad person, they made a bad decision. Now are there bad people out there? Well yeah, it’s the world we live in and hopefully I can put one bad person in prison at a time and hopefully make our community safer. But we will never be completely gone of crime, it’s the world we live in. You cut the head off the snake and three more grow back. I just like to be able to do what I can and know that I am doing the best that I can, trying to help not only my family but the community itself. I love our community. I love growing up here, I love living here. I still do and there is not another county I would want to work for, there is not another group of citizens I would want to work for. I love this place.”

Q: You grew up here and the community you serve tell our readers about your family.

A: “I have three sisters and I have one brother. Only one of my sisters lives here. She is autistic, she lives at home with my step mom and my dad. They actually live right down the road from me. I have five nieces, not one nephew. Kinda like my dad, he had all girls. My brother is considered a half brother but he is my brother. He lives around the Tulsa area. My older sister lives in Johnson County, and my little sister lives in Bryan County. My mom lives on Johnson County as well. All five of my nieces go to school at Kingston and I am raising two of my nieces as well. They are hellians. They keep me on my toes. They keep me sanish. They are my world. I wouldn't change it for nothing, raising them. They are amazing little girlsandtheEnosCommunity loves them. Defininalty the church, they love going over there. They were heartbroken when the tornado took it but they see the progress of the new one so they are ready to go try out the new one. The Texoma Baptist Church in Buncombe, when it was taken from us, the community when that happened the way they cametogetheritwasamazing. We had so much resources that it was crazy. My nieces range from the age of 10 to 16. The 16 year old she’s too cool now. They are all sporty.”

Q: What is it like for you living, working and serving the community where you grew up; what is that like for you as an adult? Did you ever think that would be possible?

A: “No, no really I didn’t. I had a lot of people tell me I wouldn’t make it. I lost a lost of friends because of it. But I kept pushing and it came true. Another thing I had to deal with was people thinking that I shouldn’t be in law enforcement because of where I grew up, the Enos area. We are all bad people. Enos has always been in the picture of being the bad zone of our county, way back in the day. It is different now but depending on who you talk to there are people who have those stereotypes but I was prettymuchtoldIshouldn’tbe in law enforcement because of where I was from and the type of person I should be or was. But they had me all wrong, I wasn’t that type of person. I try to be as honestly and blunty open as I possibly can. There is a way to tell someone something they do not want to hear professionally, and I had to do it that day and I was able to get voted in. The rest is history and I am here. I love being able to work alongside all my brothers and sisters in law enforcement and all forms of first responders. I love being able to do that. I love my job. I can't picture myself waking up tomorrow and going to a different job. I love working here. And I hope I can retire here. I still have a lot of years for that but I would love to finish my career here. Does that big man upstairs have that inline for me, I don’t know. He is the one to tell me what road to go down. I am hoping I get to end my career here.”

Q: What do you do in your spare time?

A: “I am an introvert I guess you could say. I love to read. I love doing puzzles. I like spending time with my nieces and family, and yard work. I love fantasy books. I love reading anything that is law enforcement based. I love reading shifter books. Or like dragons , werewolves. Things that happened in the 1800’s. I love anything that will keep my focus. When I am reading a book, if that first couple of chapters can’t keep my focus I’ll put it down. I can’t finish it. It has to keep my focus. I love doing puzzles and board gameswithmynieces.Itkinda helpsuswhentheyaregetting ancey and want to go outside. Like this last Saturday when it was raining and we could do anything, so we played puzzles. I am just a basic woman. I don’t like going to town, because if I go to town I will spend money. You can’t do anything without it costing you $300 anymore because everything is so expensive. I do like taking my nieces out to eat every now and then because they are doing good in school or getting their chores done properly. I like to show themgratitudeforitandwhen I don’t have to tell them 30 times to get it done. And the lake. I grew up in this lake. I learned how to swim in this lake. I like going to the lake as well. I am an introvert. I wouldn’t say I have always been an introvert. I have kind of been 50\\50 but the longer I have been in law enforcement has kind of helped that along with being more of an introvert. I love people and I love being around people and I love meeting new people. It’s sometimes you have to be able to shut that cop side off and I have learned and it took me a while to learn that too. When you walk through your front door of your home, cop Tasha is gone and it is Auntie. They call me TaTa. It took me a while to learn how to do that and now that I have I think it has helped a lot with stress. This is a stressful job. It has helped me to be able to be at home and actually be at home with them.”

Q: Is there anything that you would like the residents of Marshall County to know?

A: “Thank you. Thank you fortrustingmeforallowingme to be here for 10 years going on my 11th. Thank you for having the trust in me and those that don’t, give me a chance. I am a hard worker and I am a very good person. If you need someone to talk to to just get something off your chest I am always here, always reachable. Thank you. I wouldn’t be able to be where I am now if it wasn’t for the people in this county, in the community. They have given me the strength to keep fighting and to keep moving forward. If I could shake everybody's hand I would. I just want to thank them for allowing me to serve them and to be that shoulder or to be that protector they needed.”