Going through all the experiences in my life has really prepared and helped me get to this moment. I am so ready to be a police officer.
Seeing a police car at a traffic stop, with its lights flashing, isn’t a moment of panic for NiCoalle Zemanovic.
It’s a teaching moment.
As she passes the squad car, she can carefully and calmly explain to her three young children what their mom will be doing very soon.
“They wonder what I’ll do when I see a bad guy,” said Zemanovic, who will finish police academy training at Milwaukee Area Technical College in May 2025. “We talk a lot. They have questions. I try to keep it light. You have to give them the PG version of everything because you can’t have them scared about what their mom is going to be doing every day.”
This month, Zemanovic will join the Bayside Police Department, which patrols a village of about 4,400 people that straddles Ozaukee and Milwaukee counties.
Wearing a badge realizes Zeimanovic’s dream, nearly two decades in the making, to become a police officer and completes the educational journey she took while changing careers, navigating a divorce and becoming a single mother.
“This experience made me a lot more confident about what I was doing,” said Zemanovic, who was chosen president of her academy class. “The amount of growth I felt in myself between January and now has been amazing.
“Going through all the experiences in my life has really prepared and helped me get to this moment,” she added. “I am so ready to be a police officer.”
See TV coverage of Zemanovic’s storyZemanovic was raised by a single mother who inspired her to be independent, she said. The two moved around the country, but she calls Hastings, Minnesota, her hometown. She graduated from high school there and joined the U.S. Army.
“I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do,” she said. “I always knew I wanted to do something in public service. I just didn’t know what.”
At 20, she married a fellow soldier. They served and lived at Fort Polk, now called Fort Johnson, in Vernon Parish, Louisiana. While there, her general desire to serve the public crystallized into protecting and serving as a police officer. She went to college in Louisiana and earned an associate degree in Criminal Justice Studies.
The couple moved to Wisconsin, and in 2014, she started police academy training. She discovered she was pregnant with her first child and left the program.
“At that time I thought I couldn’t be a mom and a cop at the same time,” Zemanovic said. “But I never could shake the thought of being a police officer.”
In the next four years, she and her husband had two more children. She served in the U.S. Army Reserve, drilling in Sturtevant, Wisconsin, every month. When her six-year stint was up, she left the military and cared for her family.
Over the years her marriage had become troubled, and near the end of 2024, the couple decided to divorce. At the start of 2025, Zemanovic found herself a single mother with three children under 10 and no real career.
“That’s when I decided I was finally going to do what I always wanted to do,” she said. “I also knew in the scheme of things, five months is a blink of an eye. I knew I could get through it. I’m old enough to know when things are down, they will always come back up.”
Zemanovic and 13 other students started the 720-Hour Law Enforcement Basic Training Academy at MATC’s Oak Creek Campus in January 2025. The group quickly became tight, she said.
“I made some very good friendships in the academy, and they helped me keep going,” she said. “Everyone in that class at some point needed someone to help them. For all of us, quitting was never an option. Failing wasn’t an option. Stopping wasn’t an option. We were all going to see it through to the end.
“I also received a lot of help from family members,” she added. “You can’t miss any days at the academy, and I was lucky enough to have a support system for my children.”
Zemanovic praised the high quality of training she received from her academy instructors, especially Connie Prange, lead faculty in the Criminal Justice Studies program.
“She was an absolute inspiration to me,” Zemanovic said. “All my instructors were great. They will be the voices we will hear in our heads for the rest of our careers.”
Zemanovic, one of five women in the academy class, was chosen class president and delivered a speech at the academy graduation ceremony May 19 at MATC’s Mequon Campus.
She likes the village of Bayside because it has a small department and is heavily invested in community policing, a style that she likes.
“I will be out there on patrol learning as much as I can,” she said. “My long-term plan is to someday become a detective.”
She also doesn’t mind being a role model to others thinking about working in law enforcement or other protective services fields. “There might be women out there who are hesitant to start this journey. I hope that by talking about what I have done, I can show other women that they can accomplish the same things,” Zemanovic said. “If any woman is thinking about doing this, I would tell them to just do it. You can make it happen with the right support and drive.”
Learn more about MATC’s Criminal Justice Studies program
About MATC: Wisconsin’s largest technical college and one of the most diverse two-year institutions in the Midwest, Milwaukee Area Technical College is a key driver of southeastern Wisconsin’s economy and has provided innovative education in the region since 1912. More than 30,000 students per year attend the college’s four campuses and community-based sites or learn online. MATC offers affordable and accessible education and training opportunities that empower and transform lives in the community. The college offers more than 180 academic programs — many that prepare students for jobs immediately upon completion and others that provide transfer options leading to bachelor’s degrees with more than 40 four-year colleges and universities. Overwhelmingly, MATC graduates build careers and businesses in southeastern Wisconsin. The college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.