Meet Maria Reyes
Senior Administrative Clerk, LAPD Personnel Dept.
Maria Reyes found her niche on the personnel team at the Los Angeles Police Department three years ago after transferring from the Los Angeles Housing + Community Investment Department, where she was also a Local 3090 member, serving as an administrative clerk and working the phones since 2004.
“Most of the people calling had been hit with late fees, so they were angry and it was very stressful,” Reyes explained. While her current position on the personnel records team is quite demanding, Reyes – who was promoted to senior administrative clerk last year – finds it extremely rewarding.
“Being in a fast-paced environment helped me learn new skills, and because I’ve been exposed to different things each day, I was able to pass the test to level up,” Reyes said.
Serving a police force of 14,000 sworn and civilian personnel, Reyes works in rotation, creating and issuing IDs or working the counter to assist LAPD employees who would like to review their personnel files. An animal lover, she looks forward to having the police dogs come in to obtain their IDs. (The K9 unit staff also have personnel files.) While the personnel department has a staff of about 85, the records team of which Reyes is a part has 15 members, and Reyes considers it a job perk to have landed a 4/10 schedule, with Fridays off.
Throughout her career trajectory, the union has “been there for me every step of the way,” Reyes said.
“I’ve never felt alone,” she continued. “You can always turn to them and they will guide you to the right direction under any circumstance, in any direction, whether positive or negative. Sometimes you need to hear ‘you can’t do that!’”
Early in her LAPD tenure, Reyes won an AFSCME “selfie contest,” having snapped some shots during a helicopter ride-along. The assignment was a photo of “something you enjoy doing on the job.”
When she’s not working, Reyes enjoys playing basketball and soccer and was on a USA registered team with her daughter in the city of Huntington Park. Sports, she said, are “similar to my work at the LAPD, where we’re all team players.”
