Fallen officer’s legacy lives on

Orlando Police Lt. Debra Clayton had just finished the two-year process of writing a book on her life’s work about a month before she was killed in the line of duty Jan. 9, her publisher and friend Ty Young said.

“Bridging the Gap Between Law Enforcement and the Community” was supposed to teach Clayton’s police peers how to better connect with the communities they serve, the way she’d been able to do over her 17-year career with the Orlando Police Department.

“Her death is evidence of the gap,” Young said. “She probably would still be alive if the world was the way she saw it.”

Clayton was fatally shot while approaching a man wanted for the death of his pregnant ex-girlfriend. The man, 41-year-old Markeith Loyd, had been on the run for about a month before Clayton’s death, evading capture with the help of others, police claim.

“Obviously people knew about [Loyd’s location],” Young said. “There are people behind bars who could have helped … they could have saved several lives.”

Ironically, Clayton understood this issue was a problem well before Loyd entered the picture. She wrote for her book’s blurb that a lack of confidence and trust in law enforcement “can adversely impact cooperation for reporting crimes and providing information vital to solving crimes.”

With the author gone, Young is now left with a conundrum — does she scratch the project or publish the life’s work of her late friend?

“It’s not about the book — it’s about her mission, her legacy,” Young said.

Young said she fears publishing the book without Clayton’s direction, but feels she must advocate for her friend’s mission.

“So many people want a piece of her, and that book was her intellectual property,” Young said. “I’m waiting on the estate to tell me where they want the proceeds to go.”

Clayton’s family would also like to move forward with publishing the book, her sister, Nikki Anita Huey, said. They are working with Young, but there is currently no release date.

The book is designed to help law enforcement professionals work with diverse communities by using three key elements Clayton learned from research and personal background — humility, empathy and experience, Young said.

“She rose through the ranks through love and understanding who she was engaging with,” Young said. “She was a celebrity in the community … and Supergirl because of her heart.”

Clayton wanted to “heal” her community, and the book, along with a non-profit organization of the same name, were her next ideas on how to tackle that goal, Young said.

In the meantime, the book is up for presale online for $20 at leocunity.org.