“I really do feel like every day I have some type of impact or connection with someone in the community, or even just a colleague here,” Lt. Amanda Henrickson said as she sat down in an empty conference room on the second floor of Newton Police Headquarters.
In 2020, Henrickson was promoted to lieutenant, the second woman to have that rank in the department’s history.
She’s also commander of the Community Services Bureau, since 2022. In that role, she handles community engagement and initiatives that help build bridges between Newton’s police and its nearly 90,000 residents.
“For me, it’s a career where I feel I’ve been able to have a full life doing and having an impact,” she said.
Finding purpose
Henrickson grew up in Worcester. She graduated from UMass Amherst with a degree in sociology and psychology, but she wasn’t yet sure what path she wanted to walk professionally.
“I knew I wanted to do something where I could help people, and I was always interested in the criminal justice field,” Henrickson said.
When her brother, Jason, decided to become a police officer, he suggested she do the same.
“As I progressed and got older, policing seemed like it was the type of career where I could keep my interest with the law and the criminal justice system and also feel like I’m helping people.”
So the siblings attended Worcester Police Academy, and set to work for that city’s police department. But then the Great Recession hit, city budgets crumbled and Worcester laid off both Henrickson and her brother in 2009, before they finished training.
Finding ‘a great place’
At that time, the Great Recession had civil service workers wandering for work—a plot seemingly out of a Steinbeck novel—as property tax revenues collapsed and cities and towns struggled for fiscal survival.
“So there were police officers from all over the state who were without jobs, and we had to go to different municipalities looking for work,” Henrickson recalled.
Henrickson’s brother had checked out the Newton Police Department and suggested that she apply there.
“He said to me, ‘You’re really going to love the community when you go there, and you’re really going to like their Police Department, how it’s structured,’” Henrickson said.
Her brother ended up working in Newton, and now he’s a patrol sergeant. And he was right. When Henrickson checked out the Garden City, she stayed.
“When I came here, I felt like I kind of found a home right away,” she said.
Henrickson also connected with the city’s vibrant neighborly culture, which has made her suited for a role engaging with the public as the department focuses on community policing as well as problem-solving and accessibility.
“That’s why being the head of the Community Services Bureau has been my dream assignment, because I feel that I can go out and help people every day. I feel like I’ve really found a great place.”
Finding the uncharted
Henrickson has grown professionally in the department over the years. She’s earned a master’s degree in criminal justice from Anna Maria College and has helped shape community policing efforts in Newton. She’s also worked her way up within the department, last year becoming the second woman in the department’s history to be appointed to lieutenant.
When Chief John Carmichael appointed her to head the Community Services Bureau in 2022, Henrickson was the first woman to be put in that kind of an authority position within the department’s rank structure.
“That was an exciting time for me professionally, but I did not take that responsibility lightly,” Henrickson said. “I understood that it was extremely important for me to come in, be very focused, and be very mindful that I’d been given a lot of responsibility, and I’d been given an opportunity that no one before me had been granted.”
And she hopes to see more women in more leadership roles throughout law enforcement.
“I’ve taken my role very seriously, and I want to make sure that I do the best job that I can so as other women come up in the rank-and-file here, and make sure they continue to be afforded roles of responsibility and continue to be put in positions where they’re needed and they’re valued and they’re able to make decisions for our agency.”