Law enforcement was not Oxford Police Department Detective Rachel Carver’s first idea when it came to a career path.
Carver has been a member of the OPD since 2017 and a detective since 2018. She worked for two other police departments before Oxford and has worked most of her career as a single mother. Despite the challenges she faced getting to her current position, Carver said she believes this is where she’s meant to be.
“I have always said, ‘God, put me in the right place at the right time,’” Carver said.
Beginning her career after graduating with a master’s degree from the University of Memphis, Carver applied to be a crime scene specialist on a whim.
“There were over 200 people in the Civic Center that I had to take my qualification test in. I just felt like, ‘This is not gonna happen,’” Carver said.
She was offered the position and decided to take it, despite feelings of hesitation about moving her then three-year-old son away from family and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, where he was receiving treatment for bilateral retinoblastoma.
“We just picked up and moved,” Carver said. “I felt like I bit off more than I could chew.”
Carver then became a certified crime scene analyst with the Little Rock Police Department and was involved in cases that ranged from bank robberies to homicides. Little Rock has been ranked one of the most violent mid-sized cities in years past, and Carver witnessed everything firsthand.
“I worked every scene you can imagine,” Carver said. “ I say I’ve seen everything, but people surprise you.”
Despite the high crime rates in Little Rock, Carver said the police department was so understaffed that she worked over 500 cases in six months. After four years, she was ready for a change of pace.
“I loved it, but I was burned out,” Carver said. “When you get to that point, you got to stop.”
So, Carver moved to her hometown of Cleveland, Miss., and took a job with the local police department.
“My son was growing up, and I wanted to be closer to family,” Carver said.
Carver also went from one of nine female crime scene analysts in Little Rock to being the only woman on the Cleveland police force.
Then, while she was an instructor for the Moorhead Police Academy, Carver met many OPD officers who would come in for training. She remembers how organized and well-informed the unit was every time they presented to recruits at the academy.
“They always were squared away and always knew what they were about,” Carver said. “They just looked like they knew what they were doing.”
She applied to the Oxford Police Department months later and got the job despite tearing her ACL in a field-related accident. Carver became a patrol officer in 2017, and then a detective in July 2018.
“This department has definitely given me room to grow, fail and learn,” Carver said.
Carver, who is now 37, has spent a total of nine years in law enforcement. One lesson she has learned in her time on the force is how to stand up for herself.
“I found my voice literally and figuratively,” Carver said. “I’m more comfortable with confrontation, and I can make decisions for myself.”
Being a woman in law enforcement, she discussed the perseverance she had to learn through her career. Instead of letting mistakes and difficult situations influence her mindset, she has found a way to learn from them instead.
“You just have to have tough skin,” Carver said. “You have to figure out how you’re going to respond to it.”
