Female Officers

Women have been a part of the D.C. Metropolitan since the beginning of the 19th century. There has been a great deal gained in the last one hundred years, this page is dedicated to the women who have advanced in the field of Law Enforcement with the D.C. Metropolitan Police.

It really goes without saying that women have come a long way in the past 60 years. In my life time women have gone from being baby sitters to homicide investigators, while still being baby sitters. This page touches on the women within the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police. As an outsider I sure could use some help with this subject. So please feel free to drop me an e-mail with a photo and story to match. I would be happy to add it to the site.

The Big Break Through of the 60's..........

This page is dedicated to Gail Cobb - MPDC'S first female to be Killed In The Line Of Duty.

Todays Women

of the

Washington D.C. Metropolitan D.C. Police

Police Chief Cathy Lanier

From what I hear these women were known as "The Modd Squad"

Chief Proctor

Chief Sonya Proctor was interim Chief from November 1997 to April 1998. Chief Proctor although an interim was the first African American Female to hold this position.

Sister Eleanor Niedwick who would often ride along with the D.C. Metropolitan Police is shown here in a scout car (left) for her part time job and her sitting in a stairway (right) in her fulltime job:)

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1970 - D.C. Police Officer Gary Abrecht and his wife Mary Ellen Abrecht who is a plainclothes policewomen, posing in uniform, while on duty.

Anne (Halcombe) Clayton standing next to Deputy Chief Owen W. Davis. Officer Clayton was a member of the C.D.U. at the time of this photo

Washington, D.C., circa 1922. "House of Detention, Ohio Avenue N.W." Equipped with a nice playground

What is this House of Detention? (1922)

Submitted by Rute Boye

Readers might ask: "What is this House of Detention, who is detained there, exactly where is it, and when was it opened?" Well, let's ask Mrs. W. C. Van Winkle ...

HOUSE OF DETENTION.

STATEMENT OF MRS. W. C. VAN WINKLE, DIRECTOR OF HOUSE OF DETENTION AND DIRECTOR OF WOMEN'S BUREAU, POLICE DEPARTMENT.

Mr. DAVIS. We started this morning to go over the estimates for the House of Detention; and there are quite a few things here that even the commissioners, I am sorry to say, did not fully understand: and the suggestion was made that you come before the committee and fully inform us on certain matters. Will you give us a short description of the activities of the House of Detention, what part you play in them, etc. ?

Mrs. VAN WINKLE. You know what the building is used for, do you not?

Mr. DAVIS. I think I do; but perhaps you had better put it in the record. You know there are 435 Members of the House, and they do not know all that is to be known about these, things.

Airs. VAN WINKLE. The House of Detention is a shelter for all juvenile delinquents. A delinquent in the District is a child under 17. That means that both boys and girls are sheltered there. All female offenders over 17; all stranded women and girls; all fugitives from institutions and from parents.

Mr. DAVIS. Regardless of age?

Mrs. VAN WINKLE. No, not of male prisoners over 17; but regardless of age of fugitives from institutions if they are females: and also little children who are fugitives from home. All the wards of the Board of Children's Guardians who are awaiting a home, or pending trial in the juvenile Court, and such cases as the judge of the Juvenile court determines must wait with us, even after trial in court, until sentence and final disposition.

Mr. DAVIS. You are connected with the House of Detention in what way ?

Mrs. VAN WINKLE. We formerly had policemen detailed to the house. When we moved into the new house at Fifteenth Street and Ohio Avenue on September 1, 1920, the chief of police detailed me as director of the House of Detention. He made me directly responsible for the care of the children in that house and for the discipline and direction of the employees.

Mr. DAVIS. Do you have to do with the female policemen?

Mrs. VAN WINKLE. I am Director of the Women's Bureau of the Metropolitan Police Department.

Washington DCMetropolitan Police Women being trained in the use of a revolver - 1914

1914

Washington DC'S 1909 Police Women

Anne Clayton,(center) standing with her co-workers while training for C.D.U.

Officer King was assigned to traffic for a short time. her husband was a Captain with the MPD as well.

If I was a betting man I would say this was more of a P.R. opportunity since I have not found any records on Officer King being with the traffic division or even as a patrol officer ??

A couple of female officers passing time...

Mary Ellen Abrecht joined the Metropolitan Police Department in December of

1968, and became an investigator in the Youth Division. She earned a Certificate in the Administration of Justice from American University in 1970. As Policewomen’s Coordinator in 1971 and 1972, she assisted the Department in eliminating sex discrimination in the hiring and assignment of women. From September 1972 until March 1975, she served as a Patrol Sergeant in the inner city Third District. She attended Georgetown University Law Center part-time and received her law degree in 1974.

From 1975 to 1990, Judge Abrecht was as Assistant United States Attorney for

the District of Columbia. She gained extensive experience as a trial attorney and as anappellate attorney. She held several supervisory positions including Deputy Executive Assistant to the U.S. Attorney Charles F. C. Ruff, Deputy Chief of the Grand Jury/Intake Section of the Superior Court Division, Deputy Chief of the Appellate Division, and Training Director.

On September 14, 1990, Mary Ellen Benson Abrecht was sworn in as an

Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

THE MAKING OF A WOMEN COP: 1978 by Mary Ellen Abrecht

Photos of Mrs Abrecht that were in a 1970's TIME Magazine.

Chief Lanier rose to her position from humble beginnings, she was a junior high school dropout after ninth grade, and an unwed mother at the age of 15. Chief Lanier was raised in suburban Tuxedo, Maryland, on the northeast edge of the District of Columbia in Prince George's County, Maryland and joined the Metropolitan Police of Washington, D.C. in 1990 as a foot patrolman. In 1994 she was promoted to Sergeant, and two years later, a Lieutenant, before becoming a patrol supervisor. In 1999 she became a Captain and later that year, was promoted to Inspector and placed in charge of the Department's Major Narcotics Branch/Gang Crime Unit. In August 2000, she was promoted to Commander-in-charge of the Fourth District of the city. In April 2006 she became the Commander at the Office of Homeland Security and Counter-terrorism, Office of the Chief of Police in MPDC, overseeing, among other things, the bomb squad and the emergency response team.

Cathy L. Lanier is the Chief of Police with the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPDC). She was appointed by Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty to replace outgoing Police Chief Charles Ramsey and took the position as of January 2nd, 2007. Lanier is the first woman to achieve the position. (Wikipedia)

D.C. 's newest Mayor Vincent Gray has decided to keep Chief Lanier on as Chief of Police, Lanier will be entering her sixth year as Washingtons top cop this January.

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Officer Dorothy Jean McCarty

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