Trudy Jacobson is a philanthropist, former Fortune 200 CEO, a dear friend of LET, and a strong supporter of the law enforcement and military community. As a retired CEO, she now focuses on highlighting women across America doing incredible things both personally and professionally - a series called Great American Women.
As a supporter of the Law Enforcement community, Trudy took it a step forward to highlight American women who are making incredible achievements within the Law Enforcement profession. Now Trudy Jacobson and Law Enforcement Today present part two of the story of Sandy Malone, a Great American Warrior.
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Sandy Malone has spent years as a supportive, active, and productive “cop spouse.” Feeding officers on duty, organizing social events for cop families, and helping other cop spouses cope with the realities of being a law enforcement family were just a handful of ways she became a “super cop spouse.”
Her husband was a district commander in the area where they lived in the nation’s capital, and he parked his take-home vehicle in front of their house in the Brookland neighborhood.
But the high visibility put them in danger, because local drug dealers didn’t like his police car disrupting their business a block away. Sandy and her husband were the target of a coordinated attack that led to their house and vehicles being shot while she was home alone.
Thankfully, noone was injured and only property damage occurred. But the investigation into the shooting matched a bullet to 13 murders in the city, ultimately leading to the arrests of dozens of members of a local gang. Sandy testified at the sentencings the same week that her husband retired. They moved to Puerto Rico a few days later, but said the timing was just coincidental.
The support for law enforcement never left her. She was on a mission to continue to be a voice for police officers. After Sandy moved to Vieques Island, she got involved with the local police community and became an advocate for their underfunded, underpaid officers.
Supporting Law Enforcement
Sandy and her husband moved to their vacation home on Vieques Island, seven miles off the eastern tip of Puerto Rico, where they married years earlier. She launched a wedding planning company with the goal of executing two weddings a month, but it took off at warp speed. Weddings in Vieques planned more than 500 weddings in the 11 years they were in business.
Sandy started writing for the Huffington Post, BRIDES, and multiple other wedding publications shortly after she started her company and became a well-respected destination wedding expert.
Sandy became so well-known for managing the pitfalls of large destination wedding groups, on an island off the coast of another island, that TLC made a reality TV show about her business called “Wedding Island.” Weddings in Vieques were booked two years out with weddings when Hurricane Maria struck the island and put them out of business.
Everything came to a halt after Hurricane Maria pounded Puerto Rico. Vieques didn’t get power back for 17 months, and Sandy was left with no choice but to cancel all the planned weddings.
Back to Writing
Sandy and her husband were fortunate to be stateside when the Category 5 storm whomped Vieques, and they worked from the DC area to help evacuate friends from the little island. When she saw a post that said Blue Lives Matter was looking for an editor, the timing seemed almost too perfect.
Blue Lives Matter became a legitimate news publication under Sandy’s tutelage – changing direction from its early opinion-style articles to straight news reporting. She eventually became Editor-in-Chief of The Police Tribune.
“It was some of the most honest, thorough, and fair reporting out there for law enforcement officers,” Sandy said.
Sandy not only defended law enforcement with her writing, but she kept the law enforcement community informed of current events.
“I covered the Parkland shooting for 17 hours straight live. I covered the Ahmaud Arbery case for months and months. I covered the Dallas shooting the night the cops were shot. I covered everything big that’s happened in this country,” Sandy said.
Sandy wrote hundreds of articles for Blue Lives Matter and The Police Tribune. Her mission was to be a voice for law enforcement, which was desperately needed, especially after the George Floyd incident.
There is no doubt that the light and hope she provided during one of the most turbulent times in law enforcement, also known as the Defund-the-Police era, kept many police officers sane.
At a time when thousands of police officers questioned their decision to enter law enforcement, people like Sandy Malone kept everything together. She was a true source of inspiration and reminded the entire law enforcement community that there are people who DO care and support the police.
If it wasn’t for people like Sandy, who knows where America would be today?
Today, Sandy lives in a quiet neighborhood in Georgia where she is living a dream she has always had: writing books.
She has recently published the first two books in a series, “Escape to Jekyll Island” and “In Bloom on Jekyll.” The series has an underlying blue theme to it. Although the stories are fictional, the books contain many elements of her wild journey through life.
Read Part 1 on Sandy Malone. To learn more about Sandy Malone, go to sandymalone.com
Follow her on Instagram at @sandynmalone, Facebook, and X (Twitter).
Related
Check out Trudy Jacobson's other Great American Warrior, Candace Kanavel, an active duty LEO and Miss Arizona USA. She's trying to single-handedly change policing in America, one step at a time.
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Writer Eddie Molina is a veteran with over 25 years of combined LEO/military service. He owns and operates the apparel and accessory company www.BuyHeroStuff.com
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