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WORLD'S FIRST WOMAN POLICE OFFICER - 1873
WORLD'S FIRST WOMAN POLICE OFFICER
Who was the world's first female police officer?
Alice Stebbin Wells, born on June 13, 1873, was the first woman police officer that had the power to make arrests in the United States. She was also the first woman police officer in Los Angeles. Wanting to change her career as a minister in Kansas, she worked hard to join the Los Angeles Police Department after sending a petition to the mayor, police commissioner, and the Los Angeles city council.
Alice Wells was passionate about becoming a police officer, not so she could make the history books, but because she felt that the children and the women in the country needed a public voice. She desperately wanted to help these people who had fallen victim to different crimes. Wells went on to become the first president of the International Association of Police Women and to encourage the hiring of more female officers she spent a lot of time traveling throughout the United States and Canada.
She officially became a member of the Los Angeles Police Department on September 12, 1910 and she retired in 1940. She died on August 17, 1957.
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