Cheryl Walter is a graduate of Harvard University and has a master’s degree in forensic psychology, but yesterday, as she addressed the city’s newest class of police officers as their valedictorian, she realized a lifelong dream: becoming a police officer.

“They always knew I was going to do law enforcement,” Officer Walter said of her parents. “They were just surprised I didn’t do the feds.”
With Officer Walter’s pedigree — she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Harvard and a master’s in forensic psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice — she could have joined any one of the country’s law enforcement agencies. But the 26-year-old valedictorian, who during her speech yesterday at the police academy graduation at Madison Square Garden referred to her classmates as her “family in blue,” picked the New York City Police Department.

“It’s bigger than any of the other agencies,” Officer Walter said. “There is more of a variety of things to do.”

Even with the advancement opportunities the police department offers, the number of police academy graduates this year, 1,097, is well below the goals the department set. City officials, including the police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, blame the low starting salary of just over $25,000 for the dearth of recruits.

“It’s certainly hard to live on the salary,” Officer Walter said, adding, “Things are a little tight.”

At the commencement yesterday, Officer Walter was awarded two distinctions. She became the valedictorian of her class by winning the Mayor’s Award, which is given to the cadet with the best combined academic and physical fitness scores. But the Ivy League graduate also tied for the highest physical fitness award — not surprising, considering her résumé.

Officer Walter was recruited from Hauppauge High School in Suffolk County, Long Island, to play for the Harvard soccer team, where she started as the team’s goaltender during her freshman, sophomore, and junior years. She then joined the Harvard softball team as a senior.

In order to win the physical fitness award, Officer Walter had to dominate a series of tests that included two separate mile-and-a-half runs and three turns through the academy obstacle course.

The course required her to haul a 176-pound dummy and scale a 6-foot wall, sprinting from task to task. She also had to expertly wield her pistol, shooting 31 bullets through a brass ring using both her left and her right hand.

Officer Walter made the decision to join the ranks of law enforcement, she said, after visiting the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., as a sixth-grader. She said she was inspired to become a public servant by a former secretary of state, Madeleine Albright.

While Officer Walter said she knows she will begin her first patrol on Monday in the Bronx, she is not sure whether she will begin her career as part of the police department’s Operation Impact, an initiative that floods high-crime neighborhoods with rookie police officers on foot patrol.

Despite the inherent dangers of policing, Officer Walter, a classically trained psychologist, said she is excited to get out on the streets and work with New Yorkers, a major factor in her decision to join the NYPD over the FBI.

“I’m not into office work,” she said. “I like being out on the streets and talking to people.”

Officer Walter’s parents and twin sister have been supportive of her law enforcement aspirations since the beginning, she said, though she added that her sister is concerned for her safety.