Asian firefighters, criminal detectives in Sacramento area breaking barriers for younger generations
Nationwide data shows Asians make up only a fraction of protective service workers in the United States.
Nationwide data shows Asians make up only a fraction of protective service workers in the United States.
Nationwide data shows Asians make up only a fraction of protective service workers in the United States.
Asians are underrepresented in protective service positions across the United States, but firefighters and criminal detectives in the Sacramento region are working to change that.
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Asians make up 1.2% of all firefighters in the country and only 0.7% of all detectives and criminal investigators. The numbers in Sacramento County are a bit higher, but Asians within different local departments are sharing their stories in an effort to push for even more diversity.
Tom Chen: ‘That’s the American Dream, at least for me’
Tom Chen was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the United States in 1980. His family moved to San Francisco, where his father and uncles worked in trade professions to make ends meet.
“My folks sacrificed a lot for us to be here. The whole family sacrificed a lot for us to relocate to a foreign country, not knowing English, not having a lot of money,” Chen said. “We started out with nothing. There was at most 12 of us living in a two-bedroom house when we first immigrated here.”
Chen said he had plans to go to college and medical school after graduating high school so he could work in the medical field. His father instilled in him and his brother a drive to pursue career paths that did not require a lot of physical labor.
“He didn’t want us, the kids, working that hard. He wanted us to get an education. And that was one of the reasons why they immigrated here,” Chen said.
However, due to unforeseen circumstances involving medical issues within the family, Chen stayed home to help. He ended up taking community college classes, including one in the fire science program.
“I took one class, and that was it. I was hooked,” Chen said.
Chen decided he wanted to become a firefighter. He joined the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) when it was known as the CDF. But at that time, Chen noticed a lack of Asian representation.
“When I first started with the state, I was the only one,” Chen said.
A couple of years later, he joined the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, where he has now worked for 24 years. Chen said the Asian diversity there was not much better at first.
“When I got hired here, there were very few,” Chen said.
The numbers have grown since then, but not by much. Sacramento Metro Fire said 4.8% of its department is AANHPI (Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander). In comparison, the latest U.S. Census data shows that Asians account for around 17% of Sacramento County’s population.
Chen said although not many people within the department are of Asian descent, he chose this path because he was drawn to the similarities between the fire service and the Asian values of family and community.
“You’re a team. You’re a family. And relating it back to how we grew up, like, the one thing I can remember growing up, we had family dinners every night. There would be 10+ people at this table every night. And it’s no different than here with the fire service. Every night, we have dinner. Regardless of how busy things are, how chaotic, everybody sits down and has dinner, and that’s like our family time,” Chen said.
Chen worked his way up to be an engineer with Sacramento Metro Fire, where his primary responsibilities include driving the fire trucks and delegating water resources at fire scenes. He said he is proud of the career and life he has built for himself.
“I think the idea and the dream of the Chen family, for my father and all my other uncles — it came true,” Chen said.
Now with a family of his own, Chen said he wants to serve as a guiding light to young Asians who are thinking of a career path similar to his.
“If you work hard enough at anything, you’re going to be able to achieve,” Chen said. “If we do hire you, guess what? That’s the American Dream, at least for me.”
Jill Mandell: ‘Shout out to all my Asianeers’
Jill Mandell has worked for the Sacramento Fire Department for 21 years. Similar to Chen, she worked her way up to become an engineer with the department.
Mandell said she first considered firefighting as a career during her senior year of high school when she interviewed different firefighters for a class project. They told her what it took to work in the fire service, and it piqued her interest.
“I just went for it, and I’m so glad I did,” Mandell said. “I just did my first ride along, and from there, I couldn’t wait to get started.”
At Sacramento Fire, 5.2% of its firefighters are AANHPI, the department said. That's in comparison to the country's 1.2%. Mandell is half-Chinese and half-Russian and said she is proud of her ethnic background.
“I am honored to represent my heritage in a career where there are actually quite a few of us here. Shout out to all my Asianeers,” Mandell said. “I think it’s great, having diversity, especially in the fire service.”
Mandell also said she experienced several instances in her career when she responded to calls where the people in need were of Asian descent, adding that her presence on the scene seemed to help them get through tough times.
“When you have, especially elderly Asians in their time of need, and they see another Asian, it kind of, it almost makes them feel more comfortable,” Mandell said. “It makes me feel good that it makes a difference.”
Mandell said by being out in the field and through sharing her story, she hopes to shatter stereotypes and inspire younger generations of Asians who are considering working in the fire service.
“If they never thought that they could do it, then seeing me and all of the other Asians, females or males out there, if it motivates them or inspires them, then I love it,” Mandell said.
Melanie Marino: ‘You don’t have to fit in a certain type of box’
Melanie Marino’s path to public service started on the other side of the globe. She was born in South Korea, and then, at the age of 2, she was adopted by a white family living in Indiana.
“I was the only Asian in my community there,” Marino said.
Marino and her family moved to California when she was in junior high school. She initially wanted to be a doctor but quickly realized that was not the right path for her. She always wanted to work with children, so she got a degree in psychology and a master’s in social work.
That path led Marino to become a forensic interview specialist with Sacramento County Child Protective Services. She was encouraged to get into law enforcement and took that opportunity. She now works as a detective in the Child Abuse Bureau at the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.
“That was my goal when I went into the academy. I wanted to be a child abuse detective,” Marino said.
While the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office does not break down each division by ethnicity, a spokesperson said that 11.57% of its total employee population is AANHPI, in comparison to the country's 0.7%.
Even though that statistic is not necessarily low, Marino said she has worked on recruitment efforts to get those numbers up.
“It was nice to be able to put an Asian face out there to say, ‘Hey, Asians can work in law enforcement just as well as anybody else can,’ and it’s a great job, and there’s tons of opportunities,” Marino said. “We do a really good job with our recruiting here and reaching out all different ethnicities and races and letting them know this is something that’s a possibility for them, that they might not have thought of.”
Marino said she is not entirely surprised that less than one percent of all detectives in the country are Asian. She explained that cultural differences and expectations of what careers to go into could potentially stop Asians from taking the path she did.
“I think that not as many Asians go into law enforcement, whether they don’t realize it’s an opportunity for them or they don’t realize what it all entails,” Marino said.
Her advice for young Asians is to follow their dreams when it comes to what career they want to pursue.
“People have just expectations of what different races and different cultures should be, and I think it’s important just to be able to get out there, that you can be anything that you want to be, regardless of who you are, whether it’s your background or your gender or your ethnicity, that you don’t have to fit in a certain type of box,” Marino said.
Marino is now married and has two stepchildren and an adopted son from South Korea.
“I did specifically want to adopt from Korea because I am Korean, and it’s to have somebody else in my family that, quote-unquote, looks like me,” Marino said.
That central goal links Chen, Mandell, Marino and many other Asians working in protective service jobs across Sacramento County — to have departments with more people who look like them.
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