After Pascack Valley SLEO III officer Linda McNulty joined the Sex Crimes Unit in the Bergen County Prosecutor’s office, her outlook on life changed.

“We responded to calls where we went to the house and we found five children that were living in horrible squalor,” McNulty said. “It wasn’t that their parents couldn’t provide for them, it was that they chose not to. So that [experience] really was a trigger for me that [pushed] me to go into this world [of law enforcement and working in the prosecutor’s office].”

Officer McNulty has spent the past 27 years in law enforcement. She was a patrol officer for four years and worked in the Narcotics Unit for six years and in the Sex Crimes Unit for 17 years. 

“I was the first female for a while, so [I] was kind of breaking into a man’s world,” McNulty said. “I loved the helping people part of being a patrol officer. I loved being the first one there whether it was for an accident, death, violence, or anything [else].”

Wanting to work at the prosecutor’s office, McNulty took a job in the Narcotics Department. During her six years working there, she was able to experience the world from a different perspective, acting as an undercover narcotics agent. 

“I had never done drugs or experienced that kind of world so it was a really interesting experience,” McNulty said. “I thought I would hate all drug dealers, but it turned out that I got to see different points of view. I had to dig deeper into their personality to find what really was the motivation behind selling the drugs.”

Later on, McNulty moved to the Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Unit. She spent the rest of her career refining her skills. 

“I was offered jobs in major crimes, homicide, and special investigation, but I didn’t really want to leave,” McNulty said. “They never really asked me to leave, they gave [me the opportunity] to grow and go somewhere else, but I really loved what I was doing.”

For McNulty, some experiences are unforgettable. For instance, when she met two young ladies who at a young age had been human trafficked by their mother, McNulty followed them and their case from the day they were found to the prosecution of their mother and the others involved. Today, she remains in contact with the girls. 

“[They] were the strongest kids I have ever met in my life,” McNulty said. “It is things like that that I get chills thinking about. And those are the people that I follow for the rest of my life, I will always keep in touch with them.”

McNulty learned to develop ways to cope with the stress that this job brought to her life. 

“I have a good support system with my family. I never talked about cases at home, but I did have a lot of outlets with friends at work where I could talk to them about it,” McNulty said. “And [something else that] helps you get through the stress is hoping that whatever small part of [a person’s] life you can change, they’re going to be better for it.”

After notifying her boss that she was going to retire, McNulty didn’t know what she was going to do. However, when the opportunity to work at PV came up, she saw it as a way to still work with teenagers and bring lessons she has learned from law enforcement with her. 

PV officer Mike Niego trained McNulty when she first arrived at PV. 

“I told her it’s a great place to be,” Niego said. “The kids are great, the teachers are great, the parents have been great, and it is a great environment. I think she’ll be good because she really likes being around [students]. I think she’s going to be a good fit.”