Almost every Iowa State student of legal drinking age knows her.

All the students who aren’t of age, but like to pretend they are, probably know her even better.

But the gun-toting, handcuff-carrying and ticket-writing days of Ames Police Officer Shawn Phipps are coming to an end. Phipps’ last day on the job is April 11. She will be taking off for Washington — D.C., that is — near the end of April, “moving upward and onward” to take a job with Foreign Development Associates.

Phipps, a member of the Ames Special Operations Unit, is well known to many ISU students because of her “bar beat,” which requires her to patrol the local bars looking for underage drinkers and other liquor law violations.

The decision to move was a difficult one, she said. Phipps graduated from ISU in May 1996 with a degree in political science. Phipps said she has wanted to work as a police officer since she was young.

“I’m going to miss my job in a big way. I actually made a lot of friends, even with the people I’ve written tickets to or busted, but it’s time to move on,” she said.

Phipps said she has an extra measure of sympathy for college students, even while she is administering the law, because she is young and a recent college graduate.

“It’s a ritual getting caught. How would you feel leaving Ames without getting written up? It’s like a rite of passage; you wouldn’t feel like you had gotten your education without a $90 fine,” Phipps said.

Tom Zmolek, owner of People’s Bar and Grill, has gotten to know Phipps well. He said he will miss her.

“As a bar owner it’s not my favorite thing to have cops coming in and busting my patrons every night, but Shawn seems to be more cordial doing it than most. She does her job but still interacts with the people,” he said.

Zmolek added that Phipps has a notorious reputation as the “most loved, most hated” Ames police officer, but if it came down to a vote, he said, she would be the favorite with the patrons in his bar.

Phipps’ new job will involve a lot of international travel, something she, a lifelong Midwesterner, said she is looking forward to. Her job however, will not involve arresting powers.

“I’ll probably go into withdrawals or something,” she said in a not-so-serious tone.