This is Rumblestrip. I'm Erica Heilman. Today, episode three of What Class Are You?

I met Ingrid Jonas through my friend Marilyn. She is a retired Vermont State Police Trooper.

She started out on patrol, but she worked as a detective for most of her career.

And I was actually interviewing her for a longer story, which will come out soon.

But at the end of our conversation, I asked her to talk about class, which she really didn't want to do, but she did anyway.

So here is Ingrid Jonas.

I think that the world that I interacted with made assumptions about the class of your typical police officer.

Perhaps you didn't have a higher education.

You know, you graduated from high school.

You might have gotten a degree or not, but it wasn't required.

And that cops were more like blue collar or middle or

lower middle class. The job itself is like seen or had been seen as really honorable, that it was like a good

way to earn a pension, things that you could rely on when you got older if you didn't

have a lot of money coming your way from your relatives when they died.

So you imagine that people assume when they are, policemen coming up to the door of their

car, that this might be somebody who doesn't have a higher education. Those are some of the

assumptions. Right. And I also have assumptions going into this conversation, right? Like in my mind,

cops are like really street smart and they're savvy and they're willing to ask super hard questions.

They're willing to be on the front lines of

stuff that's going on in their state or their community. Like being willing to look at dead bodies,

figure out who killed the dead body, talking to all kinds of people, going into their houses, being on the

front lines of stuff. Whereas if you're from a wealthier class, you have other people do that

...