On May 6, 2022, Nederland Police Department (NPD) will officially have a new acting Chief in Marshal Jennifer Fine-Loven. Taking over for revered retiring Marshal Larry Johns may be daunting, but Fine-Loven’s career and passion for law enforcement makes her more than ready to take up the mantle.

“When I was a teenager I was part of a group that was a reserve mounted patrol unit that worked with retired Boston PD horses,” Fine-Loven told The Mountain- Ear. “We would get to ride the horses and do an auxiliary thing, but for cadets; we weren’t armed or anything. That was my very first introduction to law enforcement.”

Fine-Loven knew from a young age that she either wanted to be a veterinarian or a cop. After attending premier criminal justice school, Westfield State University in Massachusetts, Fine-Loven transferred to CU Boulder.

“I heard people were nice out here and I came out and never went back,” Fine-Loven explained how she merged her interests and began looking into becoming an Animal Control Officer. “I began researching that by becoming a reserve with the City of Boulder and from there I moved over to do reserve Animal Control with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO).”

“It didn’t take long for me to realize that my passion was for the law enforcement side, so I put myself through academy and I got hired right out of academy by the Sheriff’s office.”

Fine-Loven recalled a pivotal moment in her life that helped her to visualize her own goal of becoming a police officer.

“When I was in college somebody broke into my car and the responding officer was a Lafayette PD officer,” Fine- Loven remembered. “And she was female and it impacted me. It just resonated with me, it was really empowering. I got to see somebody do what I hadn’t really been able to imagine myself doing. That set the tone for me.”

Fine-Loven worked full time with BCSO for six years, stationed out of Lyons, then Niwot, then Superior. She learned during this time that she appreciated working in smaller communities more so than urban areas.

“I was in Superior and I really loved having the opportunity to get to know my district and the people in my district; that smaller feel.”

Fine-Loven then got married and had a daughter, which led to her decision to leave law enforcement and be a stay-at- home parent for two years. Though Fine- Loven was fond of her time at home with her daughter, she notes that she had more support than most.

“I loved it but the reason I loved it was because I was able to have a husband as a sole provider and a lot of people don’t have that luxury. He’s an excavator, he has his own business, and so he had flexibility and it worked really well.”

Fine-Loven and her husband would later divorce, causing her to make concessions in order to support herself and her daughter.

“When I first got divorced I was a septic inspector and I hated that,” Fine- Loven recalled. “It was a super hard job and I used to cry trying to find those lids and lifting them and digging them up. But it allowed me the flexibility to be there for her.”

When her daughter was a little older, Fine-Loven returned to BCSO as a reserve officer, working a minimum of 20 hours a month. In her time as a reserve officer, Fine-Loven was promoted to Lieutenant of the reserve unit. Once the time was right to return to law enforcement full

Fine-Loven hoped to find a smaller agency to be a part of.

Chief Jim Torres was the man responsible for recruiting Fine-Loven into Platteville, where she worked for three years, rising to become a Detective and Supervisor there. Torres would later be the bridge leading Fine-Loven to Larry Johns, but not before a rough stint in Mead.

“They approached me and they were starting something from the ground up; it was a tremendous opportunity. I had the chance to be a School Resource Officer for a year,” Fine-Loven mentioned before expanding on the difficulties she faced there. “We had four Chiefs within two years and at one point everybody quit. There were just two of us; we were running 24/7. I was sleeping in my uniform because I had to be on call with a 30 minute response time. Then it was just me; the last one left.”

After two years in Mead, Fine- Loven met Johns and was recruited to Nederland. On Tuesday, April 19, 2022, Johns awarded Fine-Loven with her official Marshal’s badge at a scheduled ceremony during Nederland’s Board of Trustees meeting. Fine-Loven’s daughter, now 20 years old, stood next to her during the ceremony, obviously proud of her mother’s achievement. But, as a member of law enforcement and as a single mother, Fine-Loven knows that the road to that ceremony has been far from easy.

“The guilt,” Fine-Loven said in regards to raising her daughter and the pain of not always being able to balance life and work. “I’ve missed a lot. It’s really sad when they just expect you not to make it and not to show up; it just breaks my heart.”

“Work/life balance has changed. When you’re working for smaller departments that’s one of the biggest issues, you’re chronically understaffed and it just is what it is,” Fine-Loven explained how the physiological response to the shift work and adrenaline dumps that she experiences in her career can mimic the same symptoms of depression. “There were lots of times when I’d be on my days off and not feeling like I had the energy, especially when she was younger and I was divorced, to go run and play tag or hide and seek. I found ways to compensate for that, but it was definitely challenging.”

The challenges of a single parent never cease, as Fine-Loven recalled that even moving her daughter into her first college dorm was a difficult experience on multiple levels.

“The day I was moving her into her dorm was the day that an officer was shot; so that whole experience for her wasn’t what it was supposed to be. I was getting calls, I was distracted.”

Fine-Loven’s sacrifices for her career don’t go unnoticed, as she has many peers and colleagues who are in her corner.

“For example, last week I reached out to Kim Stewart, she’s the Chief of Erie police and she was so responsive right away. We met and she sat with me for three hours and I just went through a list of several things,” Fine-Loven explained how she sought advice on how to prioritize when everything is a priority.

“I feel like I have people everywhere who I can reach out to. I’m working with the Golden Police Department, who have been incredibly helpful and are working with me to try and come up with a mentoring program for the officers.”

The implementation of a mentoring program for Nederland officers is just the tip of a very large iceberg, as Fine-Loven has many different projects that she’d like to herald as Nederland’s new Marshal.

“I have a lot of ideas that I’m still formulating and some I’ve already implemented. I’m working on setting up a support group for parents for teen use of marijuana within Ned. For parents who aren’t condoning it or minimizing it; they’re exasperated and they don’t know what to do,” Fine-Loven detailed other projects with the same goal of keeping teenagers on a separate path from drugs and alcohol.

“I’ve also already met with some of the people at the Teen center about working on a grant for some sort of martial arts up here; something for the kids who need some structure outside of the home, where they can get them into something that is going to require the use of their mind and body and spirit.”

“I’m also working on finding ways for the officers to connect with Nederland youth outside of uniform,” Fine-Loven added.

Nederland youth is only part of Fine- focus moving forward. The department’s new report management system is soon to be instituted, which will free up officers to patrol more; and there’s hope that NPD will acquire computer terminals for their vehicles. Fine-Loven is also a part of an upcoming opioid task force and a domestic violence committee. The committee is dedicated to reaching out to those in need and writing new domestic violence policies.

“I’m working with really trying to figure out ways to better serve the transient community that’s coming through,” Fine-Loven added to her long list. “I’ve reached out to the city of Boulder, to one of their officers that is part of their homeless outreach program to see if we can actually get a program or policy here. Something so we can be more prepared to deal with it.”

“We’re also working a lot with fire mitigation and getting some detailed organized plans in place for that.”

Even with a full plate in front of her and with big shoes to fill, Fine-Loven is more than prepared to serve Nederland as its new Marshal. When asked what lesson from her career will she carry with her moving forward, she listed three.

“Every encounter I have with anybody and everybody has the chance to impact them literally for the rest of their life. I can’t change the world but I can impact them; whatever they’re going through I change that experience for them,” Fine-Loven continued.

“Don’t apply logic. The biggest mistake you can make as a police officer is trying to apply logic to anything that you’re dealing with.”

“Things can change at any moment. So you really do learn to appreciate and value life.”