In 1998, Janet Kim entered the Los Angeles Police Department’s academy, eager to begin a career in law enforcement. Prompted by her drill instructor on her dream job in the department, Kim stood up to respond.
“I said, ‘I’m going to be a pilot for air support division in the LAPD,’” she recalled. “And here I am.”
Now a sergeant, Kim received the promotion last year to become the department’s first-ever female Asian American supervisor pilot. It’s been a long journey for Kim, who has 20 years of service under her belt.
Throughout the years, she’s done it all, from patrol to gangs to teaching tactics and firearms — and, as she says, “loved every minute of it” — but there’s always been more to the job beyond the official duties.
The best part of what she does, Kim said, is that it’s enabled her to use her position as a police officer by speaking up for the disadvantaged people she encounters across the city.
In one case, Kim received a desperate call from a senior citizen with limited English living in a small Koreatown apartment who was being mistreated by his landlord. Though no technical crimes were committed, it was plain as day to Kim that the elderly man was in a bad situation. “That’s where our badge and our gun, the power that we have as officers, gives us the ability to make an impact,” she said. “All we need to do is spend a little bit of extra time to talk to the landlord, educate him. … We can speak out for those who don’t have a voice.”
In another instance, which received national media attention, Kim organized a group of her gang enforcement colleagues to throw a quinceañera for a local teenager whom she met at a community movie night inside a housing project. The teen, Jazmine Delgado, had a terminally ill mother suffering from brain cancer whose wish only wish was to have a quinceañera for her daughter. Jazmine herself had cerebral palsy. The family did not have the money for the party. Kim, the officers and local businesses came together to make the event happen for Jazmine. At the end of the night, Kim was asked by the family to become Jazmine’s godmother.
“After I became a police officer, I saw all of humanity — the best of the best, the worst of the worst,” she said. “It gave me a ton of opportunities to make an impact, one person at a time.”
Kim joined the department in 1998. She came to the U.S. with her parents and three sisters from South Korea when she was 4 years old. Growing up, she watched her parents each juggle multiple jobs as the family adjusted to life in a new country. The sacrifices and hard work they put in to give the children opportunities to pursue decent lives, she said, keeps her going.
As a helicopter supervisor in the air support division, Kim operates helicopters and performs air surveillance in addition to supervising and training other pilots. It is, literally, her dream job. As she puts it: “I have the best job in the entire department.”
And now she’s taken her parents’ cue to be a positive force on the lives of the people she comes into contact with through her position.
“I want to do what I can to help anybody else who’s even thought about going after their dream,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be police work. It could be anything else. I want to assist anyone and everyone that is thinking about going after their dream.”
This article is a part of a series of portraits and stories, in celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, on API women who use their perspectives and voices to speak up and impact their communities. Read more here.
