Update: Shannon Dresser

She wore “Hawaii” on the front of her uniform as a UH cross-country runner, track athlete and featured baton twirler with the Rainbow Marching Band.

She wore a sash as Miss Oahu (she was Miss Hawaii runner-up in 2011) and Miss Hawaii Intercontinental 2013.

And for the past four years, she has worn an HPD badge.

Shannon Dresser, now as always, is constantly busy.

Dresser has not slowed down since “retiring” from twirling following the 2010 football season. She teaches twirling. She is involved with pageant activities. She is scheduled to earn her master’s degree in August. And she is a police officer stationed in Kapolei with a patrol area spanning between Kunia Road and Makaha.

“You really have a sense of family when you work with people so long,” Dresser said. “That camaraderie that you gain is hard to come by. You don’t want to leave it. I enjoy the people I work with.”

Dresser already has checked off most of her youthful goals. She said she began baton twirling at 6, then started performing competitively at 12. At UH, she took “bits and pieces” of routines she was taught through the years to blend with music.

“We had a live band, which was awesome — the University of Hawaii band,” she said. “It was an exciting experience to feel that music and perform to it live.”

Dresser said she comes from a family involved in law enforcement. “It was something I was interested in, more so when I was going to college,” she said. “I put in (an application), and got accepted, and I’d do the next phase and the next phase, and the next thing you know, I almost have five years in.”

She said police work is about trusting her training and her partners. She also said her background in pageants and athletics is helpful in communicating with different types of people.

“You have to deal with people on an every-day basis,” she said. “Half the time you talk to them, half the time you chase them. It’s kind of both worlds combined.”