Debra Gauthier

The last event of 2012 I was honored to be the keynote speaker for the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. We met at the Officer’s Club at Nellis Air Force Base. I shared a reading from a chapter of my book, Bright LIghts, Dark Places, about airing an episode of COPS when I was a Sergeant on the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s Bike Patrol. It was a fun evening with a wonderful group of fellow warriors.

It’s hard to believe that I used to work as a lifeguard at the Officer’s Club when I was going to college. My family lived on base when my dad was stationed at Nellis…it was like going home!

My second book signing event was at the Barnes & Noble on September 24, 2011.  As I was signing books for a long line of people I did not notice that one of my enemies from the police department had come into the store and was watching me from a distance.  She had purchased a hardbound copy of my book from the internet and had come to have me sign her book. 

As the line thinned out my enemy, who I will refer to as Betty, approached me and I warmly reached out and gave her a big hug.  Shocked, she looked at me with tears in her eyes and asked, “Debra, why couldn’t you have been this way 20 years ago…you were so angry when you were on the police department.”  I replied, “Betty, that anger was fear and the reason I couldn’t be this way 20 years ago is because Jesus was not in my heart.”  Betty looked intently at me and said, “I read your book and I want to know more about this conversion.  Can you tell me how it happens?”  I felt her pain and I knew that what she was asking could not be explained in a way that it would make sense to her natural mind so I responded this way.  “Betty, what you are asking does not happen in the mind, it happens in the heart and a better one to ask is Jesus himself.  That is the way it happened for me. I asked and He responded in a way that was so dramatic that I have never been the same since!”

In November 2012, I joined local authors at the Historic 5th Street School at the Vegas Valley Book Festival where I met another pioneer, Gina Geldbach-Hall, who paved the way for women in the Clark County Fire Department. She authored, Firegal – Rising From the Ashes, a story of empowerment in a man’s world.

Next stop on the book tour was at Colossal Canine Care’s 3rd Annual event at Bruce Trent Park in Las Vegas where I posed for pictures with many canine friends.

As the year wound down I joined Denny Griffin on his Crime Wire show.

I was also invited to be the keynote speaker for the Association of Former Intelligence Officers at Nellis Air Force Base. It felt like going home since I had spent my childhood years on the base playing army with the boys. Who would have known that I would grow up and join the boys playing cop on the street! 

I hope you have enjoyed the blogs and I look forward to sharing 2013 with all of you!  Happy New Year!!