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CONNEAUT TOWNSHIP —

Trina Beitz is a woman on a mission.

“My father was in law enforcement. My brother is in law enforcement. My uncle is in law enforcement. My cousin is in law enforcement,” the Conneaut Township resident confesses with a proud grin. “I had a ton of law enforcement around me as a child — I kind of grew up with it.”

Ever since she was a child, Beitz has dreamed of carrying on that proud family tradition. “I really always wanted to be in law enforcement — and I’ve always looked up to law enforcement,” she said.

Back in the day, she married right out of school, had children, and moved her law enforcement dream to the back of the stove. “I’m very thankful for that,” she said of her child-raising experience. “And now I really want to continue — and meet that goal. I want my kids to look up to me, too.”

In coming months, Tribune readers will have front-row seats as this 39-year-old mother of two takes her dream off the back burner and gives it everything she’s got.

A year ago, Beitz had success-

fully completed the grueling application process for the police academy at Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Criminal Justice Training Center and was making last-minute preparations to move to campus for four and a half months of full-time training designed to put her on the road to making her dream come true. Graduates of the academy, which is certified by the Municipal Police Officer’s Education and Training Commission to provide Act 120 training, are qualified to be hired as officers in cities, boroughs, townships and municipalities throughout Pennsylvania.

And then she was trampled by a horse.

A bruised spinal cord put her in the hospital for a week and Beitz had to face the unpleasant reality that she was going to be pretty much laid up for the rest of the summer. Her police academy plans went back on the back burner, but the delay was only temporary.

“Now I’m ready to do it,” she said during an interview shortly after returning from a day of testing on the IUP campus that included a cardiac stress test, physical conditioning assessment, psychological evaluation, reading comprehension test and personal interview. If that doesn’t sound grueling enough, bear in mind that she had to complete a 300-meter dash, bench press, sit-ups and a mile-and-a-half run — after spending 15 minutes at a fast walk on a treadmill set at a 15-percent grade.

Within the next two weeks, Beitz expects to open her mailbox and find a letter formally advising her that she’s been admitted to Indiana 64 Police Academy. Since she was accepted last year — and her performance on the dash, run, bench press and sit-ups was just fine this time around, thank you — she’s confident that she’ll be one of the cadets when the academy starts on the first Monday of July.