“I can do anything, and so can everyone else.”
Candice Kanavel wears many hats and… a tiara!
A member of the Tempe, Ariz., SWAT team will become the first law enforcement officer to compete in the Miss USA pageant on Friday, according to a news release from the Tempe Police Department.
“I want to give people who don’t work in law enforcement a little insight into what officers are like,” Kanavel told Phoenix ABC affiliate KNXV. “We have hobbies, we have families, we have all these different things outside of what we do for a living.”
The 27-year-old, one of the Tempe Police Department’s SWAT negotiators, was crowned Miss Arizona in May and said the roles have a lot in common.
“When I’m in a police uniform, I can help people. And when I wear the sash and crown, I can help people,” said Kanavel, who is Japanese American. “And here I am doing the same work, just in a different form.”
Kanavel said she encourages others to consider all their interests and live fearlessly.
“I think in society we often get boxed in and we’re limited to that box, but I think what I want to tell people is that you don’t have to be limited to that box,” she added. “I can do anything, and so can everyone else.”
Besides competing for the crown, Kanavel revealed in an Instagram post that one of her next goals is to meet Miss Congeniality star Sandra Bullock, who played FBI Special Agent Gracie Hart, who goes undercover at a beauty pageant in the 2000 film.
The Miss USA 2023 pageant will be held at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada, and the winner will be crowned by Miss USA 2022 Morgan Romano of North Carolina.