WEAVERVILLE, N.C. — Assistant Police Chief Somer Oberlin starts and ends her day at the station.

“I come in at 6 in the morning, so that I am here to see the outgoing shift leave, and the incoming shift come in,” Oberlin said. “That's a great time to interact with everybody, and make sure that they also feel like they're being included in the plans or what's going on in the agency.”

Walking through the station's doors as a Weaverville Police Department officer was a goal she held before she arrived in 2014.

“When I went through basic law enforcement training, while other people were pretending to work for the sheriff's office, I would pretend to work for an agency in role play situations, and I always announced myself as Weaverville police," Oberlin said. "I was manifesting, whatever that was.”

That wasn't the sole start of her journey in law enforcement.

“I had a family member who was a victim of crime, and her complaint was that although people were very professional and did well, and she had a successful prosecution in her case, she never encountered another woman,” Oberlin said. “So, as a teen, she was not only challenged with having to interview about a very sensitive subject, but she was telling it to men.”

Oberlin said she didn’t want to just discuss how the industry needed more women, she wanted to make a change.

According to the Metropolitan Police Department of D.C. and the National Institute of Justice, not only do women make up about 12 to 13% of sworn officers nationally, but they only fill around 3% of police leadership.

As Oberlin approaches the position of chief and looks to her counterparts in other areas in North Carolina, she sees women continuing to increase their impact within law enforcement.

“There was Tammy Hooper who was the chief of Asheville,” Oberlin said. “There's currently a female chief in Laurel Park. I've had the opportunity to speak to different chiefs from mid-state, like in the Winston-Salem area. There's a female deputy chief that's in Wilmington.”

She has felt the encouragement at her own station, starting on her first day in the position.

“They've always encouraged me to be true to myself, my own personality traits and what different characteristics that I can bring to the agency,” she said. “It's because we're all different that makes us successful since we work very collaboratively.”

She hopes to inspire future generations of women.

“We're getting the opportunity to show other young ladies growing up that nothing is outside the scope of your capabilities,” Oberlin said.

Oberlin succeeded Chief Ron Davis as Weaverville's new police chief following his retirement on April 1.