08/11/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Pik2K26ut/
"My name is Albert Presley, and I'm a detective here at the Saginaw Police Department. We come in, we investigate, we collect evidence. We speak to witnesses and review cameras. By figuring things out, we help protect the community, and the community is why I do what I do. I love Saginaw. I grew up here. My family’s here. I live here and I’m not going anywhere. I love the people. It's home.
Growing up—my mom still jokes about it—you remember the show Cops? When the song came on, I would lose my mind. I'd run around singing the song. Bad boys, bad boys, what you gonna do!? But I didn’t actually want to be a cop. I just liked the show. What I wanted to do was play football, which is what I did. I played in college and got a chance to go play professionally in Jacksonville for a short time before being hurt. After that, I went and played in Canada for a short time before the same injury caused me to go use my degree and teach. I found out that I love being around kids, but that wasn't my angle. I loved it, but I wanted to work with them in a different situation, so I chose to work in a juvenile facility. I eventually became a supervisor and loved it.
After that, I took a job in the Bay County Jail down for five and a half years, and that's when I met some guys from Bridge The Gap. I'm actually the first person, I believe, that they ever fully sponsored to go through the police academy.
I met Ayiteh Sowah, who runs Bridge the Gap, in the gym. I would be working out, and he would come up to me and say, 'Man, you need to be a police officer!' I grew up in the hood, so I wasn’t thinking that way and thought he was joking at first. But he would come up to me the next day and say the same thing. 'Hey, man, I'll pay for you to go through the Academy’. He did this for a year, and over that time, I got more serious about the idea. Then he asked me one more time, and I said, 'You know what? Let's do it.' and I gave him my phone number.
A few days later he called me and said, ‘You ready to go to the police academy?' And here I am.
I think that's just how God works. I think this is what God wants me to do. I love Ayiteh. It was no coincidence that I ran into him in that gym. I don't believe in coincidence. I’m so grateful for Ayiteh and for Bridge the Gap. That opportunity really brought me out of my shell and made me realize what my gift is. I give all the credit to God, because I would have had no idea this is what I'd be doing.
I do it for the community. There's not many community events you won't see me at. I try not to miss any. I like being the person that you're gonna see in uniform, but you're also gonna see right here cutting his grass and walking around the block with his son, or at the grocery store, or at church. I just love being that person, so Saginaw can see that you can do this job and still be a part of the community. I like being a person that when they need help, they know, 'Oh, he lives right here,' and they'll call me. They'll come over. I don't mind it. I think God put me here to help people, so I don't turn anything or anyone away, because I know that's what I'm supposed to be doing. It means everything to me to be doing this job in the city I live in.
Outside of work, I’m a family man. I have a seven-year-old. He’s my first. My father wasn’t around for me growing up, so I want to break that and do something different for him. It’s no knock to my father because I don’t know what his reasons were, but his absence made me realize the most important thing is being there for your kids, and that’s free. Costs nothing to be there. Be present. Teach them. Help them. Talk them through their emotions and learn how to be a young man.
I want to be there for my son and I want to be there for the community. It’s tough trying to balance both of those things, but like I said before, this job is what I’m meant to do, and God makes it possible for me to do it.”
—Albert Presley, Saginaw Police Department
