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Mary Gavin, Chief of Police Falls Church Police Department, on what's it's like to work in law enforcement ~\n\n"Once I got into the profession, I tell you I loved it. It's like the front seat of life you see people at their very best. You see a lot of people at their very worst, but the camaraderie within the profession, is very real and genuine."\n\nMary Gavin - Chief of Police Falls Church Police Department with host Andy Ockershausen in-studio interview\n\nAndy Ockershausen:\tThis is Our Town, Andy Ockershausen, and I have the pleasure today to talk to a wonderful lady who is a cop. I used that term in admiration. She's a wonderful, wonderful example of somebody that really worked hard to get what she's got. She's the Chief of Police for Falls Church. Mary Gavin welcome to Our Town.\nMary Gavin:\tThank you, Andy. Thank you for that nice introduction.\nAndy Ockershausen:\tWell, it's so incredibly important that we try to be diversified in our life and we try to diversify with our podcast and you know we had Chief Newsham on and we had Tom Manger and I said, we got to have a female because that's the right thing to do. Lo and behold, there you were with WRAP. And, I found you through the Washington Regional Alcohol Program, which I was one of the founders of when we started the thing 40 years ago. Can you believe that? It's been a great effort and WRAP has done a good job, Mary.\nWashington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP) Saves Lives\nMary Gavin:\tWRAP has done a phenomenal job. WRAP saves lives and we just had our recognition back last week, last Friday.\nAndy Ockershausen:\tYup. It was a breakfast and I didn't go ...\nMary Gavin:\tIt's one of the most meaningful award ceremonies we have.\nAndy Ockershausen:\tMaggiano's.\nMary Gavin:\tYep. Yep. Maggiano's and we get to celebrate as a region. All of the successes of the effort against the- in the fight against drunk driving and we also get together with those that have lost loved ones and reflect on the lives of those in this region that oh so tragically have been taken from us. But the best part of it is actually the camaraderie between all of the departments, the Chiefs, in recognizing the young officers that are out on the front-line every day making arrests and making people safe.\nAndy Ockershausen:\tWell, it's an incredible organization to bring all these people together and yet knowing it and being a part of it for all of these years. I've been lucky to know all these people. We still have an enormous problem with drunk driving. It just drives me crazy, but I don't know how you stop it. It's just incredible people still get in a car drunk.\nTakes Commitment from Every Discipline to Drive Drunk Driving Numbers Down\nMary Gavin:\tYou're right and it takes the whole town, the whole region ...\nAndy Ockershausen:\tEverybody.\nMary Gavin:\tAnd from every discipline, from the entertainment world to like Lyft has come into this, Uber has come into this, Budweiser, Miller, Coors. There's a lot of entities that are involved and that's what it takes. It takes every discipline to kind of think through what's their responsibility in driving the numbers down and creating ...\nAndy Ockershausen:\tIt's incredible.\nMary Gavin:\tA safety net .\nAndy Ockershausen:\tMary, I'll give you a little trivia. Our first real sponsor of drunk driving was Anheuser Busch. They jumped in it with both feet in the early 70s and they knew it was in their self protection to protect themselves with this drunk driving thing. But Mary, I'm so interested in you because not only are you a female and a cop, but you're an important person. You're Chief of Police and you also served in other jurisdictions. So you really have an overview of Our Town. And I think that's fortunate. You went to school here. You went to grammar school and high school. Correct? In Virginia?\nMary Gavin - Fairfax County, Virginia, Born and Raised\nMary Gavin:\tI did. I grew up in Fairfax County, born and born in Fairfax Hospital and raised in Fa...