Since she was a little girl, policing has played a big role in Reyna Gaudio’s life — from the day officers removed her and her siblings from an unstable home in Texas, to the moment an NYPD officer adopted her and five of her siblings.

“They’re the ones that saved me. They, you know, took me away from my situation. I saw them as angels. And then to come find out, here I am adopted by, you know, my father, who is also a police officer. And then so many years later, here I am, as a police officer as well. And I just want to pay it forward,” Gaudio said.

What You Need To Know

  • Thirty years ago, NY1 ran a story about a police officer and his wife, who adopted six siblings from Texas

  • Now, one of those children is an NYPD officer herself — helping domestic violence victims in Brooklyn

  • She says the difficult childhood she experienced before she was adopted helps her relate to the victims she works with

Her adoption was the focus of NY1 story 30 years ago, about George and Joan Schook and their decision to adopt six children all at once.

Told at Christmas time, the story aired the week their adoption became final — two years after the Schooks took in the children.

“This will be a relief, for one thing,” George Schook said at the time.

It was a relief for Gaudio too, the moment the police came to her door. Her mother struggled with addiction, and though she was just seven years old, she says she remembers praying to God.

“Living like this is not normal. And guess what? He answered my prayers. Even though I’d seen everything, I knew that I wanted better for myself. I knew that there was better out in the world,” she said.

After time in foster care, she found it. The Schooks made her and her siblings a home. As an adult, she was inspired by her own experience as a child and by her father to join the police force — where she works in the domestic violence unit at the NYPD’s 83rd precinct in Brooklyn.

“It’s a calling for me,” she said.

Her life experience has helped her excel at her job, because she understands what victims go through.

“You see that in the results of the work, because people are so much more forthcoming with details of incidents and just a willingness to open up to Officer Gaudio,” David Poggioli, the commanding officer of the 83rd Precinct, said.

Her parents went on to adopt four more children and foster even more, always working to keep siblings together. Thirty years later, the family is still tight-knit, and plenty proud of her.

“Seeing her growing into working with domestic violence, I’m very proud of her because it’s a very difficult job today,” George Schook told NY1.

“All these struggles and everything that I went through, that makes me the person who I am,” Gaudio said. “I think I’m more compassionate. I bring a different perspective to, you know, being a police officer.”