Loretta Sanchez
b. 1960, raised in Anaheim
Member, U.S. House of Representatives

There was a citywide essay contest about “Why I want to be police chief of Anaheim for the day.” I was in the fifth grade, and my essay was selected from Sunkist Elementary School, and I won at the city level.

My essay was titled  
“I want to be a police chief just like my Uncle Bill.” Uncle Bill was someone I made up.

He was patterned after my uncle who was a policeman in Los Angeles. [In my essay I said] I think cops should come from their neighborhoods and so residents would trust them more and they would know that they were in the area. I also talked about drug addiction because one of my uncles died because of a bad heroin deal. He was one of my favorite uncles, and he would go in and out of prison. That really hit me hard. I said I think there should be drug courts; they should have rehabilitation centers and teach people how to get off drugs.