I hope this essay finds you well, My name is T.J. Smithen. I currently work in law enforcement and make it a priority every day to make the Nevada roadways a safer place for all. This includes motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists. The mission statement of my department is "To promote safety on Nevada Highways by engaging and educating the community, and by providing law enforcement and traffic services." This is a bit of a broad statement but allow me to explain. I would like to give a story to highlight why I do what and I do, how it applies to this scholarship, and why I want to continue seeking further education. In December of 2020 north of Las Vegas, an intoxicated driver in a semi / box truck recklessly entered a closed event section. This closed event was for a bicyclist race on that stretch of highway. The vehicle stuck a multitude of cyclists ultimately killing five. This was a horrifically tragic event that was caused by an intoxicated driver. The Officers that responded to the scene handled the crash investigation but did not do an appropriate job determining impairment of the driver. It was not until later that the Driving Under the Influence (DUI) case was investigated appropriately. This mishap was, in my opinion due to lack of training on the part of the officer. In my career I have always been a large proponent of aggressive DUI enforcement for the above listed reason. I believe that every time an intoxicated driver is removed from the road, you are, at the very least, saving that person from themselves and hopefully avoiding tragedies like the story illustrated above. I worked on our fatal reconstruction team for several years and have unfortunately seen many crashes that ended like this. From parents to children, from cyclists to pedestrians. As a newly promoted Sergeant to my department, I hope to give my officers the appropriate training and education to continue to aggressively enforce DUI's and be cognizant of the real harm an incident like this causes to the families of those involved. My dream would be to never have to tell a loved one that they have lost a family member. This is, however, an unrealistic reality. So, I must ask myself the question “what can I do to try and prevent it?” I always come back to the tried-and-true methods of education and enforcement. I have always been an advocate of furthering one’s education. I have recently been accepted to a bachelor’s degree program with Western Nevada College. The major is Organizational Leadership and Project Management. I feel this degree program ties in well with my passion in law enforcement. I hope to leave an impact on all those Officers that work for me and after me. I hope they can become instilled with the same passion that I have in my career. I hope they can maintain a high degree of professionalism that can help provide closure to those families affected by these tragic events that happen all too often. I believe that I can leave that impact by furthering my education. I hope that you see the value in my stories and passion. Thank you for your consideration. Respectfully, T.J. Smithen