TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo police officer Dana Slay has been happy to get up and go to work since she started with the Toledo Police Department in 1990.
"I kept getting up and coming to work. Getting up and coming to work," Slay said. "Coming to work to make a difference in this city that I call home."
Unlike others, becoming a patrol officer wasn't always a career she dreamed of entering. She spent 13 years working for Seaway Food Town first.
"A lot of officers say they wanted to be a police officer since they were five years old," Slay said. "That wasn't the case with me."
Some of her customers at the grocery store were TPD officers who encouraged her to join the force. Eventually, she took the opportunity.
"I took the test, ranked 34 out of 5,000 people and here I am, still telling the story," Slay said.
She's responded to too many calls to count throughout her decades-long career, one of which happened at Food Town. She was called to respond to a man with a gun.
"He started waving a gun around in the store," Slay said. "I was the first officer in the store. It took all I had to not pull that trigger. Thanks be to God, I didn't have to because one of the citizens intervened. That's really memorable to me. I didn't have to take a life."
Slay's badge is marked #1, as she is currently TPD's longest-serving patrol officer. She's the first Black TPD officer to receive the distinction. It means a lot to her, as someone who has stood the test of time.
"Because my colleagues, I think I get quite a bit of respect from them, white and Black," Slay said.
She said she will retire soon, but will always be "Officer Slay."
"I'll always be working in the community. I'll always be helping people," Slay said.