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MADISON – She says she is ready for the challenge.

The first female deputy in several years was sworn in last week for the Boone County Sheriff’s Department during the regular session of the Boone County Commission.

Ashley Keadle, 20, was sworn in by Boone County Commission President Mickey Brown at the Boone County Courthouse Annex.

She says it was her childhood dream to become a police officer.

“I’m very excited and ready for the challenge,” Keadle said. “I have been working toward this goal for the past two or three years. Now I am ready to serve this community.”

She is a 2010 graduate of Herbert Hoover High School.

Boone County Sheriff Rodney Miller says a female deputy is just what the department needed.

“She will give our department a lot of flexibility,” Sheriff Miller said. “Today, it is such a diverse world that we live in. We have female inmates and transports, so it is such a great asset to have a female on the force and we are happy to have her on board.”

Before being sworn in as a deputy she previously worked as a reserve officer for the Dunbar Police Department and for Metro 9-1-1 center in Kanawha County.

“She comes to us with a certain amount of knowledge with law enforcement,” Miller said. “She is going to be a real asset.”

The department now has 21 deputies and still has one opening currently in the hiring process, the sheriff added.

She says she wants to help people and make a difference in the community.

“You can help people. You can do it every single day. You never know what you are going to run into. You get to meet a lot of new people, and help a lot of people and I am really looking forward to that,” Keadle said.

Keadle’s parents, Wayne and Trumannia Keadle, were on hand for the swearing in ceremony.

“I am just so proud of her,” said her father Wayne. “She has worked so hard for this for really her entire life and now she has finally succeeded.”

Her mother said she was also proud, but admitted to being a little nervous about her daughter’s new job.

“She is my baby girl and this is what she wants,” Trumannia Keadle said. “I am just so very proud of her.”