A Look at Women Police
Writers
Over
1200 state and local police officers in the Untied States have
written books. And, fifty-four of those police officers are women. Like their
male counterparts, they have written fiction, autobiographies, academic texts
and even poetry. Interestingly enough, the most successful writer of romantic
fiction is a retired male motorcop. Put the motorcop aside for the moment and
lets take a brief tour of the history of women police officers as writers.
Women in Policing
There is some disagreement
about who should be thought of as the first women police officer in the United
States. In 1910, Alice Stebbin Wells joined the Los Angeles Police Department
and was the first woman to be called a Policewoman. However, in 1905, Lola
Baldwin was hired by Portland Police Department (Oregon), given somewhat limited
police powers and put in charge of group of social workers.
It has been said that Baldwin
was the first woman to have sworn authority. Still earlier, in 1893, Mary Owens
was given the rank of Policeman in the Chicago Police Department. While Owens
worked in the department 30 years, she had been given this title and job as the
widow of a slain officer. At that time in our history, lacking today's survivor
benefits, some organizations took care of the police family by providing widows
with jobs within the department.
Although who was first is open
to debate, the types of function that early women police officers performed were
fairly similar. According to Barbara Raffel Rice, the early history of women
police consisted largely of social service in which women had to meet higher
standards for police employment, but received lower wages, were restricted to a
special unit or bureau, and were assigned primarily to clerical, juvenile, guard
duty and vice work[i].
These restrictive roles in
policing lasted well into the mid 1970s. Indeed, it would not be until the mid
1970s that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was found by the Court to be applicable
to policing agencies[ii].
Although women were becoming more and more full partners in policing, their
roles often restricted their advancement. Simply put, you couldn't promote if
you didn't have patrol experience and you couldn't work the patrol if you were a
women. By the mid-1980s a series of court decisions knocked down the last
official barriers to a women's career in local law enforcement.
In 2003, women comprised 11.3%
of local officers, up from 10.6% in 2000, and 7.6% in 1987[iii].
Another hallmark in the history of women in policing occurred in 1985 when Penny
Harrington became the first woman to be named Chief of Police for a major city.
In addition to having been the chief of police for the Portland Police
Department (Oregon), Harrington is also among the women police writers.
Women as Police Writers
In 1999, Chief
Penny Harrington published her
autobiography, Triumph of Spirit. In addition to that book, she is the author
of the 2006 academic work, Investigating Sexual Harassment in Law Enforcement
and Nontraditional Fields for Women. Harrington is likely the highest ranking
female law enforcement professional to publish, but she is not the earliest.
Since this is a historical look at women police officers as writers is makes
sense to view them somewhat chronologically[iv].
Dorothy Uhnak joined the New York City
Transit Police Department in 1954. She rose to the rank of detective and left
the department around 1968 after her first novel The Bait was published. Her
debut book won the 1969 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America and was
made into a movie. Her most famous novel may be The Ledger which was also
made into a television film Get Christie Love.
Like their male counterparts,
women police writers not only write from their experiences but tend to write
about their experiences in either an autobiography or a semi-autobiographical
form of short stories. In the 1960s,
Marie Cirile was a New York Police
Department vice detective in and around Manhattan. Her book, Detective Marie
Cirile: Memoirs of a Police Officer, is, according to one reader, a compelling
personal story with a subtle writing style which makes for a wonderful read and
excellent research material.
In 1967,
Gayleen Hay joined the Los Angeles Police
Department. Her 1993 autobiography is entitled Policewoman One In 1968, women
police officers represented around one percent of the NYPD. Indeed, in
Kathy Burkes academy class of 950
recruits, there were only 10 women. In Detective: The Inspirational Story of
the Trailblazing Woman Cop Who Wouldn't Quit, Burke tells the story of her 23
year career and her rise to becoming the most highly decorated female detective
in NYPD history.
Donna Wudyka was hired by the Detroit
Police Department in 1987. She retired on a duty-related disability in 1997.
Her 2000 book, Shattered Badges, Broken Hearts: An Officer's Nightmare is the
true-life account of a January 1996 officer-involved-shooting that claimed the
life of police officer Patrick Prohm. According to Donna Wudyka, her book,
describes the aftermath of the shooting, and the hell that the City of Detroit
put my partner and I through.
In 1980,
Mary Glatze, of the New York Police
Department, published Muggable Mary, an inside look at her participation in
undercover work in the NYPD street crimes unit. In 1989,
Mona Ruiz joined the Santa Ana Police
Department (California). As a police officer, she worked patrol, gangs and
narcotics. A native of Santa Ana, she became a police officer after overcoming
her youthful involvement with gangs and an abusive marriage. She recounts her
life story in the 2005 book, Two Badges: The Lives Of Mona Ruiz.
Joanna Purl of the Houston Police
Department tells her policing journey in Blue Reality: From the Police Academy
to Working the Streets. Written in 1997 when she was working gangs, her book
is, according to her publisher, written in in a light-hearted way about a very
serious subject. In 2002,
Gina Gallo of the Chicago Police
Department published her autobiography in Armed and Dangerous: Memoirs of a
Chicago Policewoman. She followed that up in 2002 with Crime Scenes; a
series of true-life short stories about police work.
Laurie Drummond began her police career as
a dispatcher in Ithaca, New York. She moved to Louisiana where she first took
an assignment as a plainclothes officer in the crime prevention division of
Louisiana State University. Ultimately, she joined the Baton Rouge Police
Department and began working uniformed patrol. A serious car accident ended
Drummonds police career, but open the door to her writing career. Her first
book published in 2004, is Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You.
According to Publishers Weekly, Combining Southern grace and urban brutality,
ex-cop Drummond debuts with 10 short stories grouped into five blistering
fictional portraits of Baton Rouge policewomen.
In 2006,
Maureen Tracy joined the ranks of police
writers who have provided an inside look at police misconduct and corruption.
Her book, The Department, is an account of her experiences on the San Diego
County Sheriffs Department. Maureen Tracy stated about her book, One fall
morning I received the phone call that changed my life. In turn of personal
traumatic events I made a mistake on the job. However, despite the mitigating
circumstances discovered through the Internal Affairs investigation, I found
myself on the chopping block and headed toward termination.
Police Procedurals
A police procedural is
sub-genre of mystery stories. In essence, it tells the story while attempting
to accurately portray the activities of police officers. Writing from their
experiences, both male and female police officers have authored many fictional
stories while remaining true to how it really works.
Angela Amato was an NYPD detective who
left the force and became a Legal Aid attorney. Her 1998 crime fiction novel is
Lady Gold.
A veteran of over 20 years in
law enforcement,
Robin Burcell joined the Lodi Police
Department (California) at the age of 23. She was the first woman police
officer in that department. She worked patrol, detectives and as a hostage
negotiator. She left Lodi to become an expert in forensic art, fingerprints,
and child abuse; ultimately joining Sacramento County (California) as a criminal
investigator. In 1995, she began a series of police procedurals featuring the
character Kate Gillespie, a homicide inspector in
San Francisco. Robin
Burcells books include Fatal Truth and Cold Case.
Rosanna Filippello was born and raised in
Philadelphia and joined the Philadelphia Police Department in 1993. Of her five
books, three are a series of police procedurals entitled the Angelo Mystery
Series.
True Crime and True Life
In addition to writing
fictional accounts of crime, many police authors lend their expertise at the
semi-journalistic trade of True Crime. As an example, in 2004, Lieutenant
Winona M. Franz retired from the Los
Angeles County Sheriffs Department. Her book, Guiltless is a true crime
novel about the real cases investigated by author.
Volitta Fritsche is a detective sergeant
with the Morgan County Sheriffs Department. In addition to her 18 years with
the Morgan County Sheriffs Department (Indiana), she has an additional 8 years
experience in the criminal justice system having worked as a dispatcher,
corrections officer and court reporter. Of her two books, Deadly Decisions is
the story of a mothers search for her missing son.
In 2000, reflecting life
through poetry,
Sarah Cortez, of the Houston Police
Department, published a book of poetry entitled, How to Undress a Cop.
Seriously Academic and others
A natural extension of the
genres of police procedurals and true crime is academic work focused on teaching
law enforcement related subjects. Indeed, the best college text books on
policing were likely authored by police officers.
Debra Shinder, a former Police Officer
with the Roanoke Police Department; and instructor at the North Central Texas
Regional Police Academy and the Criminal Justice Training Center at Eastfield
College, wrote two books "Computer Networking Essentials" and "Scene of the
Cybercrime."
Captain
Linda Forst is retired from the Boca Raton
Police Department in Florida. She spent the majority of her career in the
Uniformed Division, where she served as the first female Field Training Officer,
Sergeant, Lieutenant, and Captain. She was an investigator in Crimes Against
Persons, specializing in sex crimes. She was assigned to Professional Standards
for several years and spent time commanding Support Services. She is a graduate
of University of Louisville's Sex Crime Investigation Course, Northwestern
University's School of Police Staff and Command, and numerous investigative and
management schools. She is also the author of The Aging of America: A Handbook
for Police Officers. Her latest book is an academic text she co-authored on
An Introduction to Policing.
On the Horizon
Following in the footsteps of
her great-grandfather, Sheriff Paul Berthelot, Sheriff of St. John the Baptist
Parish (Louisiana); and that of her father, who was president of Fraternal Order
of the Police, Lodge Two in the late 1950s,
Dee Dee Serpas became a Police Officer.
First with the East Jefferson Levee Board Police, then with the Kenner Police
Department. Later, she joined the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office as a street
cop. Her first book, Behind the Badge in the Atchafalya Swamp is due out soon.
There are more than 1200 state
and local police officers listed on
www.police-writers.com; with nearly 200
others in the editors research file. Certainly, the list of police officers
who have shared their life and talent through their public service and writing
will continue to grow. Additions and suggestions are always welcome by the
editor at
editor@police-writers.com.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster,
LAPD (ret.), MPA is author of nine books, among them
Police Technology (Prentice Hall, July 2004),
A Concise History of American Policing; and co-author of
Leadership: Texas Hold em Style)
over fifty articles on technology, policing, leadership and terrorism and a
dozen educational websites. He can be
reached at
raymond@hitechcj.com.
[i]
Rice, B. (1996) Female Police Officers in the United States. College of
Police and Security Studies, Slovenia.
[ii]
Essentially, this act made discrimination in employment based on race,
color, religion, gender or national origin, illegal. An interesting side
note is that gender was not an original component of the law. Gender was
added to the original bill by a southern senator as a means of weakening
support for its passage.
[iii]
Local Police Departments. (2003) Law Enforcement Management and
Administrative Statistics, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
[iv]
The publication date was used as chronological guide.
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