The First Women Police Officer in the U.S.

Article and photo provided by the Los Angeles Police Historical Society

Alice Stebbins Wells, a graduate theology student and a social worker, joined the L.A.P.D. as the nation's first sworn policewoman. She saw a need for woman in "modern" police work and secured the signatures of many prominent citizens on a petition which she presented to the City Council. She was appointed officially on September 12, 1910 and assigned to Leo Marden in Juvenile Probation. She was issued a Gamewell key, a book of rules, first aid book and a man's badge. (Later she received Policewoman's Badge #1.) Wells designed and made her own drab blue and severely tailored uniform for formal occasions.

She pioneered preventive protection principles concerning youth. Her duties were extended to include enforcing laws which concerned dance halls, skating rinks, penny arcades, movies and other places of recreation attended by women and children. She searched for missing persons and provided information to women within the scope of her police duties. The Department's present-day juvenile bureaus and crime prevention units can be traced directly to the foundation Wells laid.

She obviously felt strongly about women in police work, as she toured more than 100 cities in the U.S. and Canada to promote the cause of female officers. The results: most cities appointed policewomen. New York and Massachusetts went so far as to enact statutes requiring towns with populations in excess of 20,000 to employ at least one policewoman.

In 1915, Wells founded the International Association of Women Police which continues to provide a forum for exchanging ideas and encouraging the use of women in important law enforcement roles. She was instrumental in the creation of the first class specifically dealing with the work of women officers. The UCLA Criminology Department first offered the class in 1918. In 1928 Wells co-founded the Women Peace Officers Association of California and served as its first president.