CARMEL, Ind. — To simply call Megan Soultz a "Super Cop" is not really an adequate description. Sure, Megan is a super cop in the Carmel Police Department, but she's also a super paramedic and a super member of the Carmel SWAT Team.
Back when she was a super intern working with the New York Fire Department, she assisted in the rescue effort during the "Miracle on the Hudson" plane crash. She's also part of the Carmel COVID-19 task force. Megan has obviously experienced a lot since graduating from Carmel High School back in 2006.
So which is more difficult: being a paramedic or being a police officer?
"Both share elements of critical thinking," Megan uniquely explains. "A medic’s work is very reactive, meaning I'm sitting at the station waiting for a car crash to happen for me to have to go help those folks. As a police officer, I get to be more proactive and see if I can prevent some of those things from happening."
Megan made the switch from medic to cop because she wanted to be more involved in emergency situations.
"I became a tactical medic for the IMPD SWAT team and bomb squad, and I fell in love with the law enforcement side of things," she said. "There were still situations, even as a tactical medic, that if it wasn't safe or the scene wasn't secure yet, there was a line in the sand that I couldn't cross to go do the job (as a paramedic) I was being asked to do. So the only way for me to do that was to become a police officer. Now I can fulfill both things go and make the scene safe, as well as take care of any folks that need help."
A lot of people say they will do whatever they can to make their community better, but Megan is proving she's doing it every day. And she certainly did that during her DePauw University internship with the New York City Fire Department in Manhattan. She was able to assist in helping passengers to safety during the "Miracle on the Hudson," when that US Airways flight landed safely in the river.
"When the plane went down in the Hudson River, I really learned a ton," Megan said. "Seeing the passengers come off of the boat that they were rescued on. And then they came onto a ship that was commandeered to be triage. We got to help with that triage process and sort people into categories of how injured or ill they were."
Megan made her own history recently, becoming the first woman to ever become part of the Carmel SWAT Team.
"That's been an amazing opportunity," Megan said proudly. "The guys on the team are fantastic. I wouldn't have it any other way."
And just to show that she's not slowing down as she enters her 30s, Megan is now helping with Carmel’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She is sharing her medical expertise with a national health care firm to help battle the disease on a larger scale.
"I assisted the mayor's office with choosing what test was most appropriate," Megan said. "We're trying to figure out the best (COVID-19) test available, how to collect the data, and if there's anything that we can learn from that data to move forward."
With all these amazing skills, is there anything Megan wishes she did better?
"I'm a horrible cook...I'm terrible," she admitted. "I can make some Pop-Tarts. If there's a recipe, I can usually walk my way through it, but just to add my own stuff, it turns out to be a disaster."
Nobody's perfect.