Correcting History: Chicago Claims Country’s First Female Cop

Thursday, 02 September 2010 | by Pat's Picks

LA and Portland have a long-standing disagreement about which city hired the first female police officer in the US; The LAPD says a woman was hired in 1910 and Portland says their first female hire was in 1909. But according to the Chicago Tribune, a three-year investigation by an amateur historian has found that it was in fact the Windy City that hired the country’s first female cop back in 1891.

Marie Owens was transferred to the police department after a stint as an inspector for the city’s health department, where her primary job was enforcing child labor and compulsory education laws. Owens told the Tribune in 1906: “I like to do police work, it gives me a chance to help women and children who need help.” The historian who discovered Owens says she was all but erased from the history books after an old article confused her with another women.