About Defend-Her and Retired Sergeant Mary Kelly

Retired Sergeant Mary Kelly grew up with a passion for law enforcement. In the mid 1970’s, at the age of 14, she joined the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office as an Explorer Scout. Her post advisor was the first female patrol deputy in Washoe County. She inspired Mary and is still her mentor to this very day. It is to her that Mary owes much of the credit for the awesome career that she has had in law enforcement.

The Sheriff’s Office hired Mary first in a civilian position as she was only 18 and not old enough to be a commissioned officer. She was later promoted to Deputy Sheriff where she worked in detention, patrol and as a burglary and then juvenile detective. Soon, Mary was promoted to sergeant from the Detective Bureau and worked again in detention, as a supervisor at the District Courthouse, and then to patrol where she concluded her 26 year career in law enforcement.

The Sheriff’s Office was very generous in the training that they provided Mary, she recalls fondly, "I was able to enjoy thousands of hours of classroom and hands on training; some of the most recent being with the Department of Homeland Security and F.B.I. in the area of Terrorism."

The vision of becoming a Taser representative occurred to Mary while searching for security alternatives for her daughters, ages 21 and 19. Because of recent events nationwide, and in her own community, she became acutely aware that the danger that young women face is becoming more and more prevalent. "I was passionate about the Taser because I knew that it was the #1 product in non-lethal self defense alternatives, and I credit it with saving me from harm many times during my law enforcement career," Mary often reflects during her home protection parties. "What I didn’t know was that it was available for public (non law enforcement/military) use. I was adamant that this was the only product that I would buy for my own loved ones and myself. Even though I had a tremendous amount of very good self defense training in the law enforcement academy with annual updated training, I knew that I physically would be no match for an aggressive offender and sadly, needed to carry protection. I was becoming wary of even taking a walk in my neighborhood without my husband with me."

Mary was able to enjoy 'early retirement' after 26 years of work, but was too young to retire altogether. She began searching for meaningful endeavors, both business related and volunteerism, that would help others and it suddenly occurred to her that this was the perfect product for home protection. This was the new, hot "IT" product. And one that she could recommend to anyone.

After contacting her business partner, Davidson’s Inc., as she knew of their fine reputation as a law enforcement product dealership, and with their guidance, set her personal protection and self-defense business plan into motion. The company vision of Defend-Her is to have the opportunity to provide the #1 top quality products to everyone, but focusing on women’s safety, so that they may have an overall sense of security while enjoying life and in protecting themselves adequately against violent and aggressive offenders.