'Glory years': IMPD honors 100 years of police women with historical exhibit
The scene was like out of an old police movie. A 17-year-old delinquent slips away from the grasp of two police officers, and they chase him for several blocks. They finally reach a railroad crossing, where the kid jumps across the tracks just before a train rolls in, blocking the officers from reaching him.
The story wasn’t from a movie but from 1920s Indianapolis. And the two officers, partners Emma Baker and Hettie Brewer, were among the first of Indianapolis’ female ranks.
“They went back the next day, got him out of bed and took him to jail,” said Patrick Pearsey, historical archivist for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. “So they got their man.”
Baker was the first African-American police officer in the state, Pearsey said. Brewer was the first woman in the police department to fire a gun.
Baker is among 14 pioneering policewomen who joined what was then the Indianapolis Police Department 100 years ago and are being honored with an exhibit, “The History of Women behind the Badge” in Indianapolis Central Library’s special collections room.