Women Police Officers Meeting Crime Head On

I "Robbery in progress. RobIbery in progress." Scout 19 makes a U-turn. ■ With siren and flashing red Ilights clearing the way, the car swings through the busy streets of Washington, D.C. Pólice Officer Cawley is driving Scout 19 this Saturday I night in a section of the nation's capital most tourists would hesitate to enter after sunset. I Scout 19 screeches up to the Chinese restaurant where the robbery was reported as poI lice cars respond from all directions. It was a Code 1 cali ■ -a potentially dangerous I situation that the policé hit en Bmasse. This time, however, it's a false alarm. Officer Cawley is Cynthia. I She's 24, the möïïïer of a I 2-year-old son and a cop in I Washington, D.C., a city with I a high crime rate. She is one I of a growing number of woI men in the United States who I have chosen law enforcement I as a career. i She and her colleagues across the nation do everyI thing the men do - from ■ writing parking tickets to apprehending would be robbers to investigating homicides. I Even the FBI now has 28 G ! women. The Pólice Foundation, a nonprofit, Washington"based agency that studies and evaluates pólice work, estimates that two per cent of America's pólice are women. And the number is growing rapidly, the foundation says. ' (The Ánn Arbör" Pülú'é l Department has seven umiormed women pólice cers. Prior to 1970 women j held limited duty positions in ! the department, but now are sworn officers who have completed state-approved police recruit training.) A Thé International Association of Chiefs of Pólice is , ducting a nationwide survey to determine the number of policewomen doing front-line patrol and detective work, and the number serving simply as dispatchers and clerks. Some are "pretty young things" that the wives of policemen complain about. They don't want them riding with their husbands for eight hours a day. Some are fat, some are short, some are black, some are white. Some look like movie stars. Some look like ; only a fodl would consider them the weaker sex. Officer Cawley, an attractive, nearly six-foot black woman who has been a pólice officer for two years, is a goodnatured sort who says she 'm Jikes to give people a break. She pulls up behind two cars that are doubleparked in a ghetto área and sits there a minute. The drivers see her, race for their keys and move their cars. No tickets. She is one of nearly 300 women on the district's 4,816person förce. Across the Potomac River and into Washington's suburbs, Marcia Kinkead - pronounced Kincaid - patrols in Scout 15 in Arlington, Va. She packs a .38, as does Officer Cawley, carries a blackjack and mace on her hip and has a 12-guage shotgun strapped on the frontseat hump in her car. Her nightstick is tucked beneath the neck support on the passenger's side. Scout 15 gets a cali that a woman is having a fit in an apartment building. Miss Kinkead hits the red lights and drives with her left hand on the wheel, her right hand on the siren control under the dashboard, changing it from a wail to a hi-lo signal. "People get used to the same sound and don't react" is her theory. She grabs the nightstick and races into the building. The woman, it turns out, represents no threat. She is having an epileptic seizure and eventually is taken to a hospital. Miss Kinkead, 24, will ry a supervisor on the force in I Vlay. Like OfficerCawley, M ihe's been a Ms. Fuzz" as I woman cops are sometimes I dubbed, for two years. Arlington's crime rate is I not that of the district's, but a I cop's life there is not without I its perils. Two Arlington I licemen have been killed in I the line of duty since 1972. Miss Kinkead, an attractive I blonde with a college degree, I worked undercover, mainly in I drug cases, before she took to I patrolling. She has drawn her I .38, though never fired it, and I has poised the shotgun for I tion, too, but it's never 'been I fired. And in New York City, I re's Pólice Officer Eileenrose I i Delaney, not your average I Irish cop. Eileenrose is a 12-year I eran who has posed as a lady I of the evening, tailed men I running numbers and I I ed women who received I illegal abortions. She owns 40 I wigs as part of her repertoire I ! of disguises. What prompts a woman to I want to become a pólice I cer _ a dangerous job and I one that makes her the object I of verbal abuse from a I always-understanding public? For Officer Delaney, 40, bom to Irish immigrants, it was something she wanted to do for as long as she can remember. She worked for 12 years in a bank, then her mother saw a squib in a newspaper that the Pólice Department was hiring women. She applied instantly. For Officer Kinkead, it was I something that came up when I she couldn't find a job. She I never really thought of it beI fore. And for Officer Cawley, I who has three years of colI lege, it's a chance to be your I own boss, to meet people, both good and bad, and to have responsibility. Both allow as how they might be persuaded to change jobs if they found something as challenging that paid as well. Officer Delaney? Well, she [ might be persuaded to take I something like the presidericy I of Chase Manhattan Bank. I Otherwise, forget it. She loves I the New York Pólice DepartI ment. I Generally, the pay fpr a I high school gradúate, the I standard requirement, is ■ good. In New York City, for I instance, starting patrolmen I earn $11,200 annually. In I Philadelphia, ifs $10,896; in Chicago, $10,524; in los Angeles, $10,670; in Detroit, $9, 000. At the other extreme, there's Poplar Bluff, Mont.,. starting salary $4,992. Catherine Milton, assistant director of the Pólice Foundation and author of "Women in Policing," has interviewed hundreds of women pólice officers and reports no negative motives for joining. "The women Iike to do something where they will help people," she says. "There's not too much difference between a school teacher or a social worker and a pólice officer." The Pólice Foundation, funded by the Ford Foundation, is studying the attitudes and records of women riding patrol in Washington. lts preliminary findings conclude that young and black patrolmen are more receptive to j women as partners, that the community feels "policewomen would be advantageous in handling domestic disputes Ibut disadvantageous in handling street fights or riots." (This is something of a conItradiction. More pólice offiIcers are injured handling Jjipmestic disputes than_in_any_ other single cali.) Both men and women said they would prefer a male partner. In violent situations, the male-female versus twomale teams performed about the same, although all-male teams made more contacts in an eight-hour tour than malefemale teams. In New York City, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association has gone on record as being less than enthusiastic about women riding patrol duty. The organization told the pólice commissioner it approved of women as a third partner only. Officer Delaney's partner, however, has no objections. "It depends on the woman," says Metcalf. "I feel as safe with Rosie as I would with any man. But of the original five women assigned to the 110, I would only feel safe with three of them. I got shot at once, and Rosie went right in after the guy. She's okay." The big breakthrough for women came, of course, in March 1972 from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. Other breakthroughs are a result of suits. A Chicago policewoman I collected $10,000 in back pay I over a disputed maternity I leave. Height requirements I have been dropped from many I departments because of court I action. Discrimination suitsB involving promotions haveB blossomed. New York City, with 700 wo-B men, including a deputy in-B spector, has one of the least ■ discriminatory policies. Byl contrast, some cities have al required number of slots to be I filled by women and that's it. I ín Cincinnati, for example, I ven women are on the I person forcé. And one of those I women must quit before I another can be hired. The FBI is unisex these I days, with a 5-foot-7 height I requirement for both men and I women, plus a college degree, I perfect references and the I i bility to run two miles in 18 I minutes. "The only time being a I man interfered with my work I i was when I ripped my 1 yhose," says a woman agent. I r'I made the men sit in the car while I ran into a store I and bought another pair." I The agent was a swimming linstructor, teacher, engineer I and personnel director before Ijoining the FBI. She did so I after reading a newspaper arI ücle about federal agents. The I woman not only asked that I she remain anonymous, but I that the city in which she is I based also go unnamed. 'Tve never been bored one i I day since I joined," she says. j I "It becomes a game trying to , I outwit them." The hazel-eyed, I 5-foot-8 agent has investigated I crime on an aircraft, bank ] I robbery, kidnaping, extremist j I groups, extortion, i I ing, bank fraud and I I ment, and bad check artists. Starting pay is about $17,000 I a year, considerably higher I than city and county pólice I department salaries. I The arguments against I policewomen go on and on. I "Most of the men are very I much against it," says the PpI lice Foundation's Miss Milton. I "It's a very emotional issue. I There's a feeling it lowers a I man's job." f "But departments have I been using women in decoy ■ and plainclothes work for I years. That's f ar moredanI gerous than patrol work." ■ And then there are the little I problems the woman cop I faces. Like the night Officer I Delaney thought she heard I some strange noises in her I home in the middle of the I night. She woke up her husI band. He yawned. H "And so why are you wakBing me up? You're the one ■ with a gun who's a cop! "