My name is Dylan Cade Floyd but my team calls me Dyl Pickle and as a cop I use Dylan Floyd but for modeling I go by Dylan Cade.
Dyl, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started college at 14 because my parents told me about it and I thought it would be cool to do a dance class or something but then my high school counselor told me that I was not smart enough to do it and it motivated me to prove her wrong. It was truly a “hold my beer, watch this” moment- minus the beer! I ended up graduating high school at 16 with 2 scholarships. I got my AA in Administrative Justice at 17. I then went to Cal State Univ, Northridge for two years to finish up my BA in Criminology and graduated from there at 18.
I then got into ASU and American University for grad school, and just like me, I chose the path most difficult but one that I was most likely to forge on my own. I ended up moving across the country 2 weeks after graduating from CSUN and started grad school at 19, graduating at 21 with my Master of Science in Terrorism and Homeland Security. Truthfully, to this day, the most useful education I received and the best mentors I had were from my AA degree through Pierce College. I’ll never forget going to college classes in my high school cheerleading uniform at night and going to college cheer practice from 10 pm to midnight and then doing it all over again. I loved it.
When I moved out here I got off all social media and stopped modeling so that I would be taken seriously on the East Coast. Moreover, I started modeling again this year and it took off faster than my entire modeling career that I had throughout the whole time I was modeling when in LA. The entertainment and modeling industry had changed so much and finally, I was celebrated for being a tall curvy blonde white woman, measurements are 40-29-44 and stand barefoot at 5’10”. I was fortunate and grateful to be given an incredible opportunity to be signed with NYMMG and Manikin Talent Agency and am even waiting to hear back from Ford models after my latest callback from modeling in a runway show in Charleston, South Carolina in early August.
It’s beautiful to see the acceptance of bodies of all shapes and sizes and models with big personalities. I’m also fortunate to be working for a law enforcement agency that allows me to do modeling without repercussions or scorn from my department. I started in law enforcement at 21 by working for AU police while still in grad school and then eventually worked for Georgetown University Police and ran the Sexual Assault Response Team, reporting directly to the Chief of Police. In 2020, I began working for DC Housing Authority Police Department and I can attest that we are the best-kept secret when it comes to police agencies in the DMV area. We are quasi-federal and have the same authority as the city police but additional authority when on our properties throughout the city.
We are city-wide, not assigned to just one little beat like most police and we are always working with local and federal agencies in joint operations. I have the best command staff and sergeants that have already had their careers and amazing experience- as they are retired MPDC, so we never worry about being thrown under a bus because of politics when we make minor mistakes. We don’t make the same amount monetarily as MPDC but we do have opportunities for overtime and we rarely get held over mandatorily, and I have never had an issue getting time off when I need it- unlike most agencies.
All in all, it’s just my mom and I out on the East Coast and I brought her out here about a year after I moved here in 2015. We have always been super close and without her support, I’d never be where I am today. My Dad lives in LA and runs the nation’s largest polygraph company. At this point, he mostly does them for celebrities and TV shows. Most people wonder after meeting my mom how I got my “sassy/ fiery side” of my personality but for those who get to meet him, not just on TV, they definitely understand my sense of humor- although I must give credit to my mom for my odd quirks and being a goofball. My parents were my best friends and the best parents anyone could have. They weren’t perfect of course, but the hardships made our complicated family stronger through it all.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t always been a smooth ride, and I think anyone who says it has is just lying to themselves because we all struggle with personal battles we tell no one about despite our circumstances externally. I grew up kind of poor and even being homeless when I was in elementary school a couple of times. During those times, I didn’t even know that we were homeless or struggling, and I was never without. I never truly knew what my mom sacrificed and never comprehended the gravity of our situation until I was much older. Moreover, I didn’t even realize we were “homeless” until I was an adult.
I thought we were on the coolest camping trip ever because my mom and I went up to Pismo and stayed in a tent on the beach she always made sure I had food in my stomach and homeschooled me to keep me educated and from losing any time. I will never be able to thank her for being the mom that every child deserves and more. I never knew she missed meals to feed me and skipped partying with friends to spend Saturday nights with my friends and I so that I didn’t fall in with the wrong crowd and to ensure my friends and I had fun and were safe.
Even to this day, my mom is my best friend and even a mother to my friends, and they still call her to solve their issues and get advice.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a police officer in DC. Other law enforcement reading this- I prefer to be called a “cop”. But that’s an inside joke really. I am on a specialty unit known as, the Crime Abatement Team for DCHAPD. We are a city-wide unit that hits high crime areas, specifically violent crimes, and seek out violent offenders. We are also what is probably one of the last proactive units in modern-day policing. My agency is one of the last agencies that use the “Warrior” style of policing. We are not the touchy/feely agency and truthfully, we have the luxury not to be, just because we are Housing Authority and are part of a larger agency that has the resources to send out social workers and leasing agents, etc. so officers don’t often have to wear that hat too, and we get to focus on actually being the police.
Other agencies don’t have that because they are just the police department attached to the city, therefore creating this pressure on their officers to wear all these hats that truthfully we are often not extensively trained for. As a result, it often creates more tensions between the community and police because of the multi-hat function. But that’s just my educated opinion on the matter and does not reflect my agency or other police officers, nor departments.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up.
My favorite childhood memory was with my mother who took my friends and I to the beach for the day and getting stuck on the freeway with a car full of cheerleaders and all of us singing Tick-tock by Ke$ha and doing the hand motions that we created in the car as a mini dance and my friends asking me to use my ‘hidden talent’ to joke and prank with the cars stuck in bumper to bumper with us on the 101 freeway and just laughing hysterically.
I’ll never forget going to dinner after with all of us and my dad, joking around and playing pranks on each other at the table. My dad put salt in my water when I went to leave the table and then at the end of the night I went to the buffet and got my dad dessert and put a baby octopus in his ice cream. It was hilarious. I will never forget his face of utter disgust. I still laugh about it to this day. He and I have the coolest relationship. He made me tough and made me this kick-butt cop and gave me thick skin that I needed to survive in this harsh society. My mom gave me this tender heart to love and forgive and always reminded me to show my soft feminine side and never be afraid to love with everything I had and raised me as a Christian and to know God. She even taught Sunday School when I was a kid.
My parents made me into this weird combination of being the best of both worlds, although I admit, I’m still trying to find the right balance of both sides of me, but I think that is what life is all about, learning to be unapologetically yourself and to accept yourself and other whole heartedly because we are all irreplaceable as individuals. Whether you meet me as this tough cop or this sweet model or just regular Dyl Pickle, at the end of the day, I’m still all of that and more. I’ll always be Dylan Cade Floyd as a whole which encompasses all of it.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @Blondeinblue72
- TikTok: @Blondeinblue72
