SUU to Police Officer

Crystal Bingham likes shoes and admits that she probably has more heels in her closet than the nearest shoe store has in stock.

But she also is perfectly comfortable in a pair of cleats on the softball field, spikes on the golf course, or tactical shoes for her police work. The ability to excel in very different roles and opportunities in her life is what made Southern Utah University the perfect choice for a diverse college experience.

Crystal grew up in the White Mountains in a town called Show Low, Arizona, but she was truly raised on the softball field. The youngest of five children, she spent her days attending her older sisters' softball practices, clinics, and private lessons imitating her sibling’s motions from the sidelines.

"It was always my goal to be better than my sisters who were both amazing ball players,” she says. “And after my collegiate softball career ended, I took up golf and quickly found out that I have a new hobby that I can do for years to come to satisfy my competitive nature!"

After her time in Arizona, Crystal finished up high school in Preston, Idaho, where her father took a job as the principal and athletic director. It was during her time at West Side High School, that Southern Utah's softball program took notice.

"From the day Coach Laurel Simmons walked into my house to recruit me to be a Thunderbird, I knew I would decline all my other scholarship offers to play for any other school,” she explains. “I had eleven total offers and chose SUU not only for the appeal of the university and the town, but because I wanted to play for a coach I trusted."

Once on campus, Crystal developed an interest in criminal justice and cites great professors and mentors for helping her become a police officer in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. She just started her twelfth year as a Buffalo Grove Police officer in the patrol division.

"My day to day duties are never the same, which is why I love what I do,” she says of her job. “I respond to calls, enforce traffic, and am a field training officer, which means I train the new officers we hire and show them the ropes as well as part of the recruitment team which recruits future officers to our agency from various career fairs and colleges. I am also a DUI/SFST instructor and a Rapid Deployment instructor which involves police response to high stress situations such as active shooter scenarios, room/building clearing, etc..."

Crystal credits her professors at SUU for teaching her how to apply her education to real life. 

"You're in your late teens and early twenties thinking criminal justice is just like an episode of CSI or Law & Order when really it's nothing like that,” she says. “I felt like my professors had real life experience and knowledge of the topics they were teaching me and weren't just reading from a textbook."

In conjunction with the "real world" education she received from Southern Utah University, Crystal believes the qualities Thunderbird athletics taught her also play a vital role in her success.  

"Benefits are endless as a student athlete at SUU," she says. "Learning to balance a busy life all while maintaining the highest level of physical fitness, grades to maintain scholarships, and meeting academic deadlines when you're busing traveling the country for games and competing with elite athletes taught me how to excel in all areas of life. I have respect for those who have mentored me in my athletic career. As a training officer with my police department, I always say the easiest rookies to train are the ones with some type of athletic or military background because they are used to a discipline that many others may not be and they look at you as their coach."

Crystal believes she has become an effective "coach" in her career because of the lessons she learned at Southern Utah University. She uses her life experience and desire to seek out diverse opportunities to inspire the next generation of police officers.

"One reality check for me in college was that I HAD to study and Coach Simmons made sure we did," she explains. "I think here I learned discipline, focus, and balancing a heaving work load--all of which are the tools that I use every day in my life now, I am grateful beyond words for those lessons. I learned that opportunities aren't always given, sometimes you need to seek them out, SUU taught me that I can always do more than I think I'm capable of."

Southern Utah taught Crystal how to manage wearing all those different shoes in her life, and while it's challenging, she wouldn't have it any other way.

"I am engaged to the love of my life, who is also a police officer and proudly serving as a Captain in the Army National Guard. Though extremely busy at times, we live an awesome life."