GREENVILLE, S.C. (WSPA) – Sergeant Diana Munoz stands out in one way among fellow officers of her rank in the Greenville Police Department.
“I’m the first Hispanic sergeant in Greenville,” Munoz tells us.
She moved to Greenville with her family at the age of 7 from Colombia, South America in 1999. It’s not too surprising that she is a police sergeant 23 years later. Her father was a police officer in Colombia.
Sgt. Munoz is now in charge of a platoon of officers on her shift. She supervises both the Law Enforcement Center downtown and out in the field.
When Munoz is out in Greenville, that’s when she can make a difference.
“Most of the time when you go out to a call and it’s a Hispanic person, they don’t want to talk to you,” she tells 7NEWS. “But when they realize you’re Hispanic, there’s a trust built in as soon as you get there.”
That is something she gets to experience all the time from Greenville’s Hispanic community.
“I think it makes them happy. They immediately call me out. ‘Munoz! That’s not an American last name so you must be Hispanic.'”
“I don’t look all that Hispanic, but I am,” Munoz said. “So I immediately start talking to them in Spanish and it makes them feel better.”
Sgt. Munoz has a long-term goal of becoming a police captain but she said she has a lot of work to do to reach that rank.
