Cheryl Dorsey

Retired Sergeant Cheryl Dorsey, formerly of the Los Angeles Police Department, (LAPD) knows the streets. The LA native grew up middle class in South Central LA when it was predominately White and watched "White-flight" turn it into a Black neighborhood, littered with gang activity, compliments of the Crips and Bloods. Adopted, she was raised by two loving and doting parents. Her father was a metal-fitter at McDonnell Douglas Aircraft in Torrance, California and her mother was an accountant and the only black employee at McKesson & Robbins, a pharmaceutical company in Anaheim, California. A career in law enforcement came out of necessity to provide for her family (four sons). She never "bled blue". She married at 18; became a mom at 19; and divorced by 23. As a young single mother she found a job working for the State of California's Department of Justice as part of the secretarial pool working for special agents assigned to both Investigations and the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement. Typing arrest reports, for 8-hours a day, for the special agents piqued her interest in law enforcement. And when the special agent-in-charge asked her to act as a decoy in an undercover sting operation which targeted a suspected PCP dealer, that assignment altered her career path. She later joined the LAPD and entered their police academy in 1980 under the command of Police Chief Daryl Gates. As a rookie cop, she was assigned to Southwest Division on MLK Boulevard and Denker Avenue. She married again and was widowed at 28; this time with a second child in tow. A third marriage to a rookie police officer produced to more children. Ironically, at the hands of her third husband, she became the victim of domestic violence, which led to a divorce. During her 20-year career, Dorsey worked a variety of assignments including patrol, traffic, vice and the infamous South Bureau CRASH (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) Unit. She chronicles her life on the force in the memoir, "The Creation of a Manifesto, Black and Blue", an autobiography that pulls the covers off the LAPD and provides an unfiltered look into the department's internal processes. Now retired, she has become a community advocate, seeking to educate the public on police policy and procedure as well as understanding police culture and deciphering what she calls "code talk". She steps over the blue line, and gives straight talk on controversial polices shootings and topics making national, headline news. She provides frequent commentary for KABC Talk Radio, MSNBC, Court TV (segments: "Corrupt Crimes", "It Takes A Killer", and "Motive to Murder"), CNN/CNN International, and HLN TV, and has appeared with Bishop T.D. Jakes, Dr. Phil, Dr. Drew, and Tavis Smiley, among others. She has also been seen in such police documentaries as "Walking While Black", "L.O.V.E. Is The Answer", and "Black and Blue". She offers an insider's view on issues making headline news relating to abuse under the color of authority such as use of force, racial profiling and deadly force. As a Black female, she brings her perspective to such issues as police brutality, work-related discrimination, retaliation, sexism, domestic abuse, etc.