South District Neighborhood Resource Officer Helps Young Girls Through Her Mentoring Program

The name of the mentoring group for girls ages 6-18 is “Polished Girls Empowered & Motivated Spiritually,” or simply Polished GEMS, and the members are divided into several age groups, each one named after a precious gemstone, such as ruby, emerald, diamond, and sapphire.

Since 2015, South District Neighborhood Resource Unit Officer Citia Easterling has been mentoring young girls, giving them advice to help them focus on their education, families and future, and to help them avoid some of the things that she experienced at their age, while growing up in South Miami. She has mentored more than 200 girls so far.

“I went through a lot of things, as an innocent child, and then as a high-school student, and it changed my life, but it also led me to a path to mentoring, to help young vulnerable girls,” Officer Easterling said.

When she was nine, a man known to her family exposed himself to her on two separate occasions and was subsequently arrested after she told her mother what happened. A police officer assigned to the case learned that she loved to collect baseball cards, so he would occasionally visit her to drop off baseball card packets. “That left me with a positive impression of police, and I started thinking about what it would be like to become a police officer,” Officer Easterling said.

She became a mother at the age of 17, and had to quit playing high school sports so that she could take care of her daughter and work, to earn money to pay for things that her child needed. Her entire life changed. She went from hanging out with her friends to having the responsibility of raising a child.

“It was almost as if we were growing up together,” Officer Easterling said.

After high school, she started working for the Florida Department of Corrections. She still wanted to become a police officer, but felt that gaining experience in the field of corrections would make her a better police officer.

In 2015, while she was still working for the Florida Department of Corrections, she started mentoring, based on something that her daughter told her.  “I remember clearly, one day my daughter telling me that I had a lot of wisdom and that I should help others, and that’s when I made the decision.”

She modeled her program after one that she had gone through as a girl. “When I was young, there was a thing in South Miami called the Afterschool House, where students from the University of Miami would go there and tutor us for free. That planted the idea, and I started writing out a plan.”

She advertised through social media, and organized a picnic at a local park as a sign-up event. Over 100 girls showed up. “We had a great turnout, and I had several friends who were helping out as mentors.”

In 2018, Officer Easterling made the decision to join the Miami-Dade Police Department, and enrolled in the academy. She was a member of Basic Law Enforcement Class #121. The rigors of the academy forced her to scale back on the mentoring program, and membership waned.

“But when I finished the academy and came here (South District), I started it back up,” Officer Easterling said. There are now about a dozen girls in the program. “We are helping these girls one at a time become better people, so that they can grow up and be highly successful.”

Polished GEMS hosts several annual events, including a backpack giveaway, Thanksgiving turkey baskets, Christmas toy drive, feeding the homeless, and breakfasts for the elderly. Additionally, Officer Easterling anonymously sponsors two families, with school uniforms and shoes. She also donates baskets to graduating high school seniors and helps students with prom expenses. 

South District Major Benny Solis said Officer Easterling is someone who truly cares about, and contributes to the community. “As an agency, we should strive to acknowledge the great things that our officers do, not just when they are on duty, but when they are off-duty, taking the time to serve the community, that should be showcased, and Officer Easterling is a shining example of that,” Major Solis said.

By Brian Ballou