THE NORTH PLATTE TELEGRAP
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2020
‘I always believed women could do anything’
women’s complementary strengths.
“That helped me learn the town,” she said, but “I knew that was not a forever deal.” In spring 2012, then-Police Chief Mike Swain advertised openings on his force. She finally reached her goal. She wasn’t exactly a pioneer, said Citta, one of three sworn female officers. North Platte had had women as sworn officers but had gone several years without one before she was hired. Regardless, she knew she had to show herself capable of all aspects of police work. Citta, a self-described “adrenaline junkie,” says she’s got the past shoulder injury and current back problems to prove she is. “I don’t think that men do this intentionally — it’s just their nature” to protect women, she said. But “as women, I think we have one chance to prove ourselves in our ability. ... And you’ve got to be able to prove you can fight like the guys (and) you can make decisions like the guys.” She also has had to advocate for things men don’t naturally think about. “The biggest thing when I hired on was re- alizing that they make (police) uniforms for women,” Citta said. “I went to (the) admin- istration and said, ‘Can we get uniforms that fit women?’ No problem. They were bought.” Citta believes law enforcement agencies, like couples and other workplaces, are stronger when they make the best use of men’s and
put that uniform on for the first time. Even without law enforcement relatives, Citta said, she learned the value of public service from her father, the late O’Neill school Superintendent Doug Nollette. In the years before her 2005 graduation from O’Neill High School, “I went along on rides with my local police department or the (Nebraska) State Patrol every chance I got.” Next was the former Dana College in Blair, which Citta attended on both academic and golf scholarships. She majored in criminal justice but added a second major in social work at the suggestion of her advisers. “I took a lot of extra credits so I could grad- uate in four years,” she said. When Citta graduated from Dana in May 2009 — a year before it closed — she had been dating David Citta of North Platte long-distance for several months. He’s a station operator at Nebraska Public Power District’s Gerald Gentleman Station near Sutherland. “A friend of a friend hooked us up,” she said. “I told him I was going into (police work) and if that was a problem, show yourself out.” First, however, Lisa spent one last summer at home to help care for her dying father. Doug Nollette, O’Neill’s superintendent for 20 years, died that September at age 63. Karen Nollette still lives in O’Neill. A month after her father’s funeral, Lisa joined David in North Platte. The couple married in 2010, by which time she was doubly glad she added social work to her Dana degree. She wanted to join the State Patrol, but competition for open slots was keen. North Platte police didn’t have an opening when she arrived in town, either. So Citta landed a job with the former North Platte office of Boys and Girls Home, which had a contract with state government to help provide foster care services. After that contract expired in October 2010, Citta kept busy as a temporary U.S. Postal Service carrier.
“Women generally tend to be more nurtur- ing, (though) that’s not always the case,” she said. “There’s sometimes on calls that I have some people who tell me, ‘Can you bring that male officer back?’ because I just might be a little too hard on people.” North Platte’s force has been a demanding but enabling place to work under both Swain and current Police Chief Daniel Hud- son, Citta said. “I’ve been to female law enforcement train- ings, and people in other departments have horror stories of feeling like they weren’t promoted because they were female or that they’ve gotten the short end of the stick on duty assignments. ... “I can honestly say that here in this depart- ment, with our administration, I’ve never had that feeling.” Citta also inspires young men and women alike to try law enforcement as leader of Police Explorer Troop 480, a Scouts BSA unit for 14- to 21-year-olds. “Oddly enough, the ones that consistently show up and the ones who are always here are a couple of young females,” she said. “I always do what I can to try to encourage them. I feel a lot of those barriers have been broken, but still you have a lot of women and younger girls who may not realize that they can do this job.”
Lisa Citta
Editor’s note: This story was originally published in the Dec. 22, 2019, Telegraph. By TODD VON KAMPEN todd.vonkampen@nptelegraph.com Plain and simple, Lisa Citta always wanted to be a cop. She didn’t have law enforcement people in her family, says the recently promoted North Platte police investigator, who will speak at The Telegraph’s 2020 Women of Achievement awards banquet Wednesday. But Citta says her mother, Karen Nollette, “says she can remember me being in the third grade and the third-grade teacher asked what everybody wanted to do, and my mom says (that), as long as she can remem- ber, the only thing I ever wanted to do was to be a police officer. ... “I never really grew up with the thought that women couldn’t do this job. ... I always believed women could do anything just the same as men could.” Citta, 33, joined the North Platte Police Department in August 2012. She was first sworn in as a patrol officer after graduating that December from the Nebraska Law En- forcement Training Center in Grand Island. Mayor Dwight Livingston swore her in again Nov. 19 to complete her promotion to investigator’s rank. Citta will formally rotate into the Criminal Investigation Division this spring for a couple of years, she said. It took patience, however, before she could
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