Young Police Officer, Amber Cook, is at home in Napoleon.
Photo courtesy of Amber Cook. Background image by Steve Johnson.
By John Hummer
Editor
Twenty-one-year-old police officer Amber Cook has found a new home in Napoleon, similar to where she grew up, so she feels pretty much right at home. Nearly fresh out of the police academy, she has been with the Napoleon Police Department since the middle of August 2021.
“She’s doing well – she’s progressing well in her training,” stated Napoleon Township Deputy Police Chief Matt Peters. “She’s been learning a lot and learning very, very quickly. She’s been taking on a lot and impressing a lot of people here.”
Cook grew up in Grayling and graduated from Grayling High School in 2019. “It’s a very small community – much like Napoleon,” she said. “It was very nice to be able to come down here in kind of a similar area. I can get to know the community like I was able to up north. I knew everybody; everybody knew you. Everyone was able to give a helping hand if needed. It was a nice area to grow up in.”
Cook became interested in police work because her older brother, Travis, is a police officer with the City of Grayling. “I started going on ride-along with him and I fell in love with it,” she said. “It was enjoyable. From then on, that was what I wanted to do.”
Following graduation from high school, Cook attended Kirtland Community College in Roscommon and earned her associate degree in applied sciences. Concurrently, she went through a 17-week police academy at Kirtland, finishing in May of 2021. “The police academy wrapped up my associate degree,” she noted. (more below)
Before coming to the Napoleon Police Department, Cook got her feet wet in law enforcement work with the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office as their ORV and marine deputy for a few months. “I enforced the ORV and marine laws – boating, side-by-sides, four-wheelers, dirt bikes. It was a lot of fun.”
Although she hasn’t been on the road that long with the Napoleon police department, one call that Cook is already proud of is a hit and run incident she worked on. A driver of a pick-truck struck a tree in a property owner’s front yard. “The driver left on foot. When we arrived, the truck was still there,” she stated. “Over a few days, we were able to figure out who was driving the truck and we tracked him down.”
The family whose tree was hit was appreciative of the effort and work Cook put in on the case to track down the subject and issue citations. “They reached out through email and thanked me,” she said. “Then they saw me in person at [Napoleon] school when I was doing the crosswalk and got out and thanked me again. It’s nice in today’s day and age with how people feel about law enforcement to get the ‘thanks’ for doing something that’s part of the job.” Overall, Cook says she has already established a good relationship with the Napoleon community. (more below)
“Amber brings a very youthful aspect that we don’t often get,” Peters noted. “We oftentimes hire people in the middle of their careers or at the end of their career or post-retirement from another agency. We don’t run into a lot of 21-year-old fresh officers. She brings a very bright attitude with that youthfulness and we’re looking forward to what she’s got to offer Napoleon.”
In her spare time, Cook enjoys spending time with friends and family. She comes from a large family with four brothers and two sisters – she is the third youngest of the bunch. “We’re all pretty close – it’s nice having a big family,” she said.
Cook is engaged to her fiancé, Chase, who builds pools for Superior Pools in Jackson. “That’s why I’m down here – my fiancé lives down here.” The couple was engaged in March of 2020.
Cook also enjoys honing her artistic flair. “I like to draw, and I like to paint, although I’m not great at painting,” she says. She is also a big movie buff.
