A History of Women in Law Enforcement
 Officer Lola Baldwin, First Sworn Female Officer |
 Sheriff Myrtle Silver of Pittsboro, NC |
In Honor of Women’s History Month, a History of Women in Law Enforcement
1845
Flora Foster was appointed as one of two women matrons at the New York City Prison (the Tombs) and served in that capacity for thirty-six years until her death in 1882.
1890
Marie Owens was one of the first known appointed policewomen in Chicago, Illinois.
1908
Lola Baldwin was the first sworn female police officer, hired by Portland, Oregon.
1916
Constance Kopp was officially hired as New Jersey’s first female deputy sheriff, after serving as jail matron and capturing an escaped fugitive at a Brooklyn subway stop in late 1915.
1916
Georgia Ann Robinson was appointed to the LAPD, making her America’s first known African-American policewoman.
1920
Myrtle Siler was elected sheriff in Pittsboro, NC.
1946
Josephine Serrano joined the LAPD, becoming the first known Latina policewoman.
1972
Tanya Padgett, Martha Parks, and Tommie Stewart were sworn in as full police officers in Ann Arbor, MI, one of the first cities in the country to take this step after changes in employment law in 1972 made it illegal for police departments to discriminate on the basis of gender.
1985
Penny Harrington became the first female police chief of major city, in Portland, OR.
2004
Heather Fong became first the first Asian-American woman to serve as police chief of a major city, in San Francisco, CA.
Approximately 73,000 women serve as law enforcement officers today, 11.6% of the total.*
FBI Statistic: (https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/tables/table-74)
Historic references provided by National Center for Women and Policing and John Jay College.
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