In the 1970’s, very few women were in law enforcement. It was thought that women were too fragile for law enforcement. At that time, women really didn’t apply for law enforcement positions. They would usually apply and be hired for matron, secretary, or clerk positions. When hired, many were relegated to some juvenile division or family violence cases. However, when I started in 1979 and onward, I had become very impressed by the women doing the job. Remember the Carrollton P.D. Sergeant from my written reprimand story?

Well, this story is about an enrolled classmate of mine attending the N.G.L.E.A. in January 1982. That’s the North Georgia Law Enforcement Academy. I believe she was one of those “Cobb County P.D.” or “Marietta P.D.” girls. While on break one time she told our group, that she “couldn’t wait to take a man to jail”. Emphasis on the man part. Tough. The academy training was referred to as “mandate training”. Male oriented? Our training at the Academy required us to pass 6 weeks of training to become a State certified Law Enforcement Officer. Yes, just 6 weeks.

My graduating class consisted of about 30 men and 4 women. No female instructors. I was very impressed with the way the females trained. This is a story about how one female won over the respect of the whole class with her actions.

A small white house next to our academy was a training site. It was an older house even then. It had about 3 rooms and a bathroom, just an old square country house. Maybe built around the 1920s or 1930s. This event happened during a training scenario. We cadets were split up into 5-man groups. I mean 5-person groups. One of the female cadets was in my group. We cadets were instructed to enter the house one at a time for different training scenarios. When a cadet would finish their scenario, they were allowed to stay and watch the other cadets of the group complete their scenarios. The female cadet went last. As it turned out, we 4 male cadets were watching her scenario. It was now time for the female cadet to begin her test. I had no opinion on women in Law Enforcement. Hell, I had only been a patrol deputy for 6 months before my mandate. As a rookie, I heard some veterans talking derisively about women as “patrol” cops and laughing at times. Hell, I may have laughed too. We had no females in deputized positions at Douglas County S.O. at the time. Douglasville P.D. was female-less at the time also.

Her scenario started as she slowly entered the house and began her sweep. Looking around, that is. An LEO has to immediately recognize such things as how much of the inside of the house you can see, occupants, nooks and crannies, evidence lying around, hiding spots, where’s my cover, etcetera. All that and more in a fraction of a second. That is not hyperbole. She began by taking a preliminary scan. She entered the house to hear someone yelling loudly from the back. We, spectators, fell in behind her as the scenario continued. Loud threats were screamed from a backroom.

With her duty weapon drawn, she found the instructor in a backroom with a gun to the head of her seated partner. The instructor was shouting very loudly for her to give up her weapon, or he would kill her partner. She tried to calm the assailant. She used soft voice tones to try and calm down the assailant as trained. She entered the room with her weapon drawn. She kept negotiating/talking with the gunman. As she talked, I noticed she was inching towards him with her duty weapon, aimed at the instructor. She tried to have the assailant calm down, but he kept yelling for her to hand over her weapon. As he ranted and raved, she got closer and closer and waited for him to lose focus for a moment. He kept his gun at her partner’s head while she got to within arm’s length of the assailant. The instructor kept demanding for her to give up her pistol, but he never pointed his weapon away from her partner’s head to give her a chance to make her move.

During training, we used our service revolvers loaded with “squibs”. A squib was a brightly colored plastic shell casing with a primer and loaded with cotton. When you were shot during training, it would leave cotton fibers on your clothes to show where the bullet would have hit. Well, this female officer was standing at arm’s length to the instructor, who was still yelling for her gun. She aimed her weapon at the temple of the instructor’s head and pulled the trigger. BANG! The instructor fell back and dropped his pistol and started shrieking in pain. He was feverishly hoping from one foot to the other, back and forth as he was trying to pick cotton fibers out of his temple. He looked like he had white cat whiskers. There were even powder burns. Burnt flesh.

We who were watching gave out a loud cheer and started laughing. Now, we did not put her on our shoulders and walk her out, but we felt like it. Those groups waiting outside for their turns heard our cheering inside and waited eagerly to find out what happened. When told, they erupted in laughter also. She had become the hero of the class for that day. The next day, the instructors told the class to pair up for drills. Us men all yelled for her to pick us that day, but she continued to pair up with the other females in training.

I found females as just another officer that had your back. “Just one of the guys.” That’s probably the best compliment I could give to a female officer. “You’re just one of the guys,” Nuff said.

(Wanna know the rest? Read “Women in Law Enforcement” part 2)