When Whitestown Public Safety Officer Melissa Trump gets in her patrol car for a 12-hour shift, she knows danger is always just a traffic stop away.

WHITESTOWN, Ind. (WTHR) - When Whitestown Public Safety Officer Melissa Trump gets in her patrol car for a 12-hour shift, she knows danger is always just a traffic stop away.

"We treat every traffic stop as if that person is going to try and kill me, so you're going to approach it the same way," said Trump

Even a stop like the one Trump made for a broken taillight comes with risks.

"Do you have your driver's license and registration on you?" Officer Trump asked a man she had pulled over.

Her job as one of Whitestown's newest public safety officers is a complete departure from what Trump used to do, working in a daycare with toddlers and infants.

"I worked very hard to get where I'm at," she said. "I wish I would have known, started sooner, but either way, here I am now."

She's one of three female officers recently hired by the growing department which has 17 total patrol officers on staff.

Those hires have Whitestown exceeding the average number of female officers for a department of its size.

"I'm fortunate that the two officers that work on my shift with me, they don't treat me any differently just because I'm female," Trump said.

"I wouldn't want them to treat me differently because I"m female. I want them to feel confident that I can do whatever they can do and that I can back them up just as good as anybody can."

For the people Officer Trump stops, though, her presence is still taking some getting used to.

"I'll approach a vehicle and the first thing that will come out of their mouth is, 'Sir.' and then they take a double look at me and see I'm a female and I think they feel a little bit embarrassed by that, but it doesn't bother me," Trump said.

In some situations, like a recent case of suspected domestic violence, Trump says being a female officer works to her advantage.

"There was a lot more information I was able to get from her. I was able to get pictures from places on her body that she wouldn't want to show a male officer," said Trump.

At the end of the day, Trump says she's here to do a job, just like the men who wear the same uniform.

"The qualifications are the same for male or female, so I'm expected to be able to do everything that they can do and that doesn't bother me, I think I should be able to do exactly what they're doing," she said.