Remembering 9/11 with Department of Public Safety Leader Ann-Marie Taylor

When Associate Vice President for Auxiliary Operations of Palm Beach Atlantic University (PBA) Ann-Marie Taylor recalls Sept. 11, 2001, she remembers what a powerful experience it was - and how powerless she felt.

As a police detective, Taylor's impulse was to support her brothers and sisters in law enforcement on the scene as the towers fell. Being based in Palm Beach County meant she had to hear about the terrorist attack like everybody else.

The Attacks

News of a plane crashing into the first tower came over the radio as Taylor was driving to work on Flagler Drive. By the time she arrived at the police station, the second tower was falling, and it had become clear that the tragedy was a terrorist attack.

With the rest of the nation, Taylor watched people jump from the towers to their deaths on TV. She held her breath when news came that terrorists had also attacked the pentagon - where her uncle was working.

"I didn't know if my uncle was dead or alive or stuck," Taylor shares. "Being a police officer, I'm the one in charge of my family, so everyone was calling me to find out what happened."

Phone lines were going berserk that day as other families and friends tried to get in touch with each other, everyone desperate to know what was happening and whether their loved ones were okay. When Taylor's family members were able to reach her over the phone, she focused her efforts on keeping them calm.

"My police chief called me into his office that day," Taylor remembers. "He said everything was going to change for law enforcement and the way we do things from then on."

With her team, Taylor worked to prepare the community for potential impact, unsure where the attacks would end. Taylor's husband, a firefighter, was also working to support the area, and he and Taylor mourned their public safety brothers and sisters together.

"In the catastrophe that was the event, it was impactful to have a husband who was in the field, so we both understood what the other was experiencing," Taylor says. "Our faith was surely our guiding star during that time in our lives."

Late that night, Taylor finally heard from her uncle. He called from his home in Alexandria, Virginia, having walked all the way from the Pentagon. She was the first to hear his account of the attack and stayed on the phone processing through his experiences with him.

A Unifying Aftermath

The following day is one Taylor prefers to call to mind.

"Sept. 12, 2001 was the most amazing experience of unity I've ever witnessed in the United States," Taylor expresses. "I didn't expect the way the event would permeate all the way into the state of Florida. You couldn't see a person without acknowledging them and all the things they'd seen or experienced. There wasn't anyone who wasn't being nice and caring for every human being."

Stories of people taking strangers in or giving their lives for others made the sense of unity palpable. To this day, Taylor still feels the impenetrable bond formed between her fellow public safety officers.

In the aftermath of the attacks, the United States changed its stance from a reactive one to proactively preventing terrorist attacks, and the FBI recruited Taylor to be a detective on a joint-terrorist task force. She investigated international terrorism for eight years before returning to the Town of Palm Beach Police Department. Taylor rose in rank and retired as Deputy Chief of Police in 2018 to join PBA, where she currently leads campus safety efforts.

As Taylor reflects on her memories of 9/11, she shares the takeaways that have inspired her continued public service.

"While we want to honor the past, we never want to get stuck in it; we want to learn from it," Taylor says. "My takeaway is to focus on the unity created by the event. While it was horrible, there were good things that came out of it.

"It's important to focus on the good and stay centered on Christ and carry on in a manner pleasing and glorifying to God."