Major Tara Craig never took offense to being called “Sir” during a traffic stop or collision investigation. She chuckled when the person realized their mistake, and instead used it as an opportunity for dialogue. The same went for people who remarked that she was the first female state trooper they had ever seen. 

“I tell them that there’s not a lot of us,” said Craig, who was the first woman to achieve the rank of captain within the SC Highway Patrol. “We fluctuate between 35 and 40 (female troopers) across the state.” 

Craig didn’t get into law enforcement to be an example or to break glass ceilings. While visiting a friend in Columbia during college, she witnessed a collision and watched a state trooper who responded. 

“He was in that crisp gray uniform and holding a small child, as the parents were being loaded into an ambulance,” she recalled. “That child seemed so calm. It was then that I knew: I didn’t want to be just any law enforcement officer — I wanted to be that person.” 

Growing up in what she called a “military-style environment,” Craig said her dad jokingly marched her and her three brothers in and out of people’s houses. There were also four boys living next door to them, and Craig played sports with boys up until high school. She attended Lander University on an academic-athletic scholarship, where she played softball and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology. So attending the Criminal Justice Academy and Patrol School in 1994 didn’t faze her. 

“They were like your big brothers who look out for you,” Craig said of her male fellow troopers. “You formed bonds with each other.” 

Through the years, Craig ascended the ranks, following in the steps of women before her who were the first to hold the ranks of corporal, sergeant, and lieutenant. She eventually became a Lieutenant in the Highway Patrol’s Emergency Management Unit. But in 2017 — 40 years after the Highway Patrol welcomed its first female troopers — Craig achieved another first for women in South Carolina law enforcement as the agency’s first female captain, when she was promoted to oversee the patrol’s Training Unit. 

“You have the opportunity to impact a lot of people from the training aspect,” she said. “Everybody who comes through is either a new cadet or here for in-service training. You can change or help them and not realize it.” 

In 2022, Craig was promoted to the rank of Major within the Department of Public Safety’s Division of Strategic Services and Planning, where she oversees the department’s employee wellness, development and retention strategies. While the Highway Patrol has made great progress in hiring women, Craig hopes to see more options for women who become mothers while on the job. 

“Looking back at it now, I must have been tired,” she said with a chuckle as she thinks back to juggling being a road trooper and a mother to a young son.

Over the years, she found that being a woman can have its advantages when working in law enforcement. 

“I think we have embedded empathy,” she said. “To see the world with a little bit of an empathetic eye is, I think, an advantage. You can understand when somebody is struggling. It doesn’t mean you cut anybody a break; you just handle it a little differently so they don’t feel as bad when you give them that ticket or show them at fault in a collision.”

It also helped when Craig oversaw the Training Unit, where she insisted on participating in PT workouts with trainees every day. “I did that not only so I would know who they were, but to see what their potential strengths or weaknesses were, or, to encourage them,” she said. “That way, they knew me enough on a personal level that it wouldn’t be hard for them to come and ask for help if they needed it.”

Despite all of this, Craig doesn’t feel like a trailblazer. 

“My hope is that it paves the way for other women,” she said. “Sometimes what you think is your plan, may not necessarily be your plan. I just feel like I have a responsibility to leave things better than when I started. Whether that is making changes in policy, or being an ear to listen and offer some advice.” 

Although Craig has had countless interactions with the public over the years, she often thinks back to a profound encounter as a young trooper. One rainy afternoon in the early 2000s, a Hispanic family was hit by another vehicle in their van. The driver who hit them, fled. While the mother spoke with Craig at the scene, the woman’s young daughter came up to Craig and started speaking to her in Spanish, tugging at Craig’s pants leg. 

“She’s calling you ‘Angel.’ She said the blue light over your hat looked like a halo, and that you are here to protect us,’” Craig recalled the girl’s mother saying. “It was at that moment that I knew this is what we’re here for. It’s more than writing tickets or warnings. It’s knowing that you made somebody feel safe. You impacted them.”