CAYCE, S.C. — If you walk down the hallways of Lexington Two Innovation Center, chances are you'll run into Danielle McCord.
McCord is the school resource officer and, with her recent promotion to lieutenant, she's now in charge of all 14 schools within Cayce city limits.
"I'm here to just make sure that the school is safe and secure, interact, engage with the students, build relationship with them and help build that trust with law enforcement," McCord said. "But there's a lot of other things that go into it. There's playing the mom role, there's helping them gear for after high school life, there's break ups and relationship mentoring."
McCord knew she wanted to work in law enforcement when she fell victim to crime several years ago and her victim's advocate, also a female, never let her feel alone in the events that happened.
Now, she's serving, giving back to law enforcement, the agency that was there for her in her greatest hour of need.
When she started with the Cayce Police Department, another woman, an investigator in Lexington County helped shape her career.
"She encouraged me. She never let me fall short, and she was so good at what she did, she made me want to be what she was," McCord said. "Being a woman in this profession is, it's very overwhelming sometimes, but it's super impressive that we can get out here and do the same job that men can do every day and we don't blink an eye. We work just as hard. It's very empowering for us."
McCord has worked in every department with Cayce police except narcotics.