A Police Pioneer on Her Unfinished Business
If you want to know why the numbers of women in policing have stagnated in the past 20 years, hovering at 12 percent of municipal police officers and 3 percent of police chiefs, a good place to start is Portland, Oregon.
In 1908, Portland appointed Lola Baldwin as the superintendent of the Women's Protective Division (WPD), making her the nation’s first policewoman. In 1985, Portland again made history, when Penny Harrington was appointed as chief, making her the first woman to head a major U.S. city police department.
Harrington’s litany of firsts—first female detective, first female sergeant, first female lieutenant, first female captain—opened many doors. She played a pivotal role in providing women access to precincts, patrol cars and promotions. Now 76, she recounted for The Marshall Project the personal costs of those firsts—her rise to chief, her battles with the”boys-only club,” the tumultuous tenure that forced her to resign, and her disappointment at the distance women still have to go.
Growing up, Harrington imagined becoming a secretary or some other gender stereotype. Then she attended a high school career day that featured a policewoman, and everything changed.
Harrington enrolled in Michigan State University’s Police Administration program. There, she was steered towards juvenile justice and child psychology courses. It was, after all, the role women filled in law enforcement at the time.
She was hired by the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) to work in the Women’s Protective Division. The WPD was considered progressive at its inception in 1908,
