For Women, a Salute : LAPD Brass Pays Tribute to Female Personnel

Until Los Angeles Police Officer Fanchon Blake came along, women in blue, with rare exceptions, were confined to such assignments as jail duty and community relations and could not advance beyond the rank of sergeant.

In 1973, Sgt. Blake filed a sex-discrimination lawsuit against the city that evolved seven years later into two historic consent decrees which, among other things, required the Los Angeles Police Department to increase the number of women employees until 20% of its sworn work force was female.

Ten years after that judgment, the department is halfway there--and that, according to Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, is on schedule and cause for celebration.

On Friday, more than 300 of the 1,034 women officers in the department gathered at the Police Academy athletic field, where they were honored by Gates and special guests including Blake, 69, who retired from the force in 1973--shortly after she filed suit.

The 1,034 sworn women officers in the Police Department account for 12.53% of the total force of 8,253. By comparison, women officers made up only 2.6% of the force when the consent decrees went into effect.

“You’re going to make me cry,” Blake said as she received a standing ovation from the audience of mostly female officers. “This is worth all the hell I went through.”

Among the first to stand was Officer Shilah Johnson, who was president of the Los Angeles Women Police Officers’ Assn. when Blake challenged the department, then almost exclusively made up of white males.

“We panicked. I was afraid for her and for us,” Johnson recalled. “It was like going up against God, only God doesn’t wear a gun, so it was worse.”

In her message to the audience, Blake said it was not all that long ago that department officials considered it a “bizarre idea” that women could “qualify for promotion above sergeant . . . could command men, could work street assignments.”

“You have my respect and admiration, for I know how much more has been demanded of you than when I graduated from the academy in 1948,” Blake said. “But all your challenges have not yet been met. . . . Don’t give up your dreams.”

Gates called the day a “milestone” that showed “great achievement” on the part of those women who decided to become police officers.

“This, quite frankly, is the first and probably the last of these kinds of meetings,” Gates said. “But it is important to point out . . . that women are here . . . and that they will continue to contribute in a greater and greater degree to this department--and that is a very, very good thing.”

While increasing numbers of women have been assigned in recent years to positions once reserved for men, such as bomb technician, helicopter observer and motorcycle officer, there remain a handful of jobs in the department that have never been held by females, police officials acknowledged.

“We’ve never had a woman in a position of commander or higher, for example,” said Sgt. Ron Sullivan of the department’s division of employee opportunity and development, “but that is going to change.

“We are actively and aggressively recruiting females and strongly encouraging women already in the department to take promotional examinations,” Sullivan said. “It is only a matter of time before they reach the highest ranks.”

Separately, the Police Department has met its hiring goals for blacks and Latinos, although recruitment of additional Asian officers “has been our hardest goal to meet,” said Sgt. Joe Payton, who is in charge of recruitment.

Under the consent decree, the department’s goal was to give 24.6% of all officer appointments to Latinos and 10.9% to blacks before the year 2000. The goals were set to approximate the percentages of women and other minorities in the community. The department voluntarily imposed a goal of giving 7% of its officer appointments to Asians, Payton said.

As of May, 1,722 officers--about 21%--of the officers on the force were Latino, and 1,104--about 13%--were black, Payton said. Only 198 officers--2.4%--were Asian.

“Traditionally, Asians feel that life as an officer is not as honorable as life in other professions such as law or medicine,” Payton said. “It’s a tough problem for us.”

Although the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was not subject to the consent decrees, it voluntarily set similar hiring goals for women and minorities--and is currently fighting with the Police Department over a handful of potential Asian recruits.

As of May 1, there were 168 Asians in the Sheriff’s Department, or 2.2% of the total 7,704 sworn personnel in the force.

“There are 280,000 Asians in the Los Angeles area between the ages of 20.5 and 35, which makes them a target for recruitment,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Curtis Spears. “We are all fighting over the same few bones.”

Meanwhile, most female officers in the Police Department have not been with the force long enough to remember Blake’s legal battle against policemen who argued that women were not dependable partners because they were “too emotional and weak” to handle work in the field.

The days when female officers were classified as “policewomen” and wore badges that were slightly smaller than those worn by “policemen” are buried in the past.

Now the ranks are filled with young recruits like Officer Francine Carrasco Spada, 30, who has tangled with suspects much taller than herself in city streets and Hollywood bars and who expects to be justly rewarded for her hard work.

“I’m five feet tall, I’m a woman and I don’t have the strength of a man,” said Spada, who has two daughters. “But I’ve got lots of training and a gun, I use my head and I want to go home every night.”

BACKGROUND

In 1973, Sgt. Fanchon Blake filed a sex discrimination lawsuit against the city alleging discrimination in the hiring practices of the Los Angeles Police Department. Key provisions in the settlement of the lawsuit, which was later expanded to embrace minorities, included that the department initiate recruitment programs designed to inform women, Latinos and blacks of job opportunities, accelerate hiring of women until they represent 20% of the department’s sworn personnel, and set a minimum height requirement of no more than 5 feet.

WOMEN IN BLUE

Ten years ago the city signed two historic consent decrees that required the Los Angeles Police Department to increase the number of women employees to 20% of its sworn work force. Today the 1,034 sworn female officers in the department account for 12.4% of the total force of 8,253 personnel. By comparison, female officers comprised only 2.6% of the force when the consent decrees went into effect. The department has surpassed its hiring goals for blacks and Latinos, but recruitment of additional Asian officers has been the hardest goal to meet.

By sex Female: 1,034, 12.53% Male: 7,219, 87.47% By race Filipino: .4% Male: .38% Female: .02 American indian: .3% Male: 22% Female: .08% Asian: 2.4% Male: 2.1% Female: o.3% Black: 13.37% Male: 11.01% Female: 2.36% Caucasian: 62.66% Male: 55.75% Female: 6.91% Hispanic: 20.87% Male: 18.02% Female: 2.85% Paul Gonzales / Los Angeles Times