Reinstated APD officer wins nod in Oprah’s magazine

A former Atlanta police major who was fired last summer and got her job back last week is featured in the November issue of Oprah Winfrey’s “O” magazine.

Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis, 48, of Douglasville was one of 80 women selected for a leadership training contest, “Women Rule!”

The contest was for women involved in a project, such as a nonprofit organization or public policy initiative, who “wanted to take it to the next level,” according to the story. It drew 3,000 applicants.

Davis’ project is listed as “Sisters-in-Law,” described as “a support network for women in law enforcement that also encourages girls to consider the profession by offering real-life role models,” the article states.

The contest winners’ reward was three days of leadership training in New York in June — days after Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington demoted Davis and about a week before he fired her in connection with a botched sex crimes investigation involving the husband of an Atlanta police sergeant.

“I wasn’t going to go,” Davis said in a phone interview Monday. “I said, ‘They’re talking about disciplining me.’ I was more sick about it than anything.”

Family and friends convinced her to take the New York trip, and she’s glad she did. The feedback and camaraderie at the conference was exactly what she needed, she said. “The people at O magazine were so receptive to women’s issues.”

Davis appealed her firing to the city’s Civil Service Board, which last week reversed her firing. It’s unclear whether Davis will return to the department at the rank of major, which was her position before she was demoted shortly before her firing.

An Atlanta police spokeswoman, Sgt. Lisa Keyes, said in an e-mail Monday that she did not know when Davis would return to work and would not comment further.

Of the 15 women profiled in the story, Davis’s photo and profile are featured most prominently.

When she first saw the article, “I really became emotional about it,” Davis said.

The profile details her Sisters-in-Law initiative, a project still in the proposal stage, and about the challenge of rising through the ranks in a male-dominated field.

It quotes Davis saying that she had to work “above and beyond to deal with men not accepting me as a credible leader.”

“A policewoman doesn’t get respect until she runs a robber down,” Davis said, according to the story. “But women in these roles contribute so much.”

Davis also said that her female coworkers are reluctant to “make waves,” and the story said one challenge she faces with the Sisters-in-Law initiative is “getting buy-in” from her male colleagues.

Now that Davis has successfully appealed her firing, Davis said that “O” magazine has expressed interest in doing a follow-up story on her.