In regulation heels and a skirt, O’Connell helped pave the way for the modern era of policing.
Virginia O’Connell’s A-line skirt fell just below her knees, her black pumps had 1.5-inch heels and inside her pocketbook was a regulation handgun. It was the fall of 1967, and after spending a year at the Women’s Police Bureau (WPB), O’Connell was dressed in her new New York City Police Department (NYPD) uniform. Over the next four years, O’Connell would curse the purse, the skirt and the heels noting that, “The uniform [was] ridiculous” and the gun in the purse “was absolutely useless.”
It wasn’t until the 1930s that women with a college degree could take the civil-service exam to become a “policewoman” in the WPB; to join the NYPD, men needed only a high school diploma or prior military service.
O’Connell’s father, a New York City police inspector, encouraged her to join the force. Working as an emergency room nurse at the time, she took the written exam and passed, becoming one of 12 women in her 1966 Police Academy graduating class.
At the age of 22, O’Connell was assigned to the WPB (which shuttered in 1972). Most often her assignments sent her and two other female officers to Times Square to arrest men who were sexually abusing women in movie houses; one of the officers would play decoy.
“The way you were told to signal the two women behind you was to put a scarf on your head in the middle of a movie,” said O’Connell, incredulous.
Nonetheless, she remains wistful when recalling that “phenomenal” year with the WPB, where all of her bosses were women and she earned a salary equal to the male officers at the NYPD.
“You want to shock? [Maternity leave] was 18 months with running pension time,” O’Connell said, still amazed.
Everything changed a year later when she was assigned to the NYPD, where maternity leave dropped to three months. Without a clear plan to assimilate female officers, O’Connell said male officers were reassigned so women could be hired.
It bred “chaos” and “a lot of resentment” against the women, O’Connell said, and while she “didn’t take it personally,” there was “pressure to show that you can really do this job,” including frequent tests conjured up by male officers “hoping you would fail, just waiting to laugh. I wasn’t going to give them that opportunity.”
She credits her father for her ability to ignore the ridicule, but her big motivator was proving to herself that she could handle the job.
Most of the policewomen I ever worked with, they are into de-escalating. They’re into talking. They’re not into brute force or pulling the gun—that’s a last resort.
Virginia O’Connell
At the time, women made up only 1 percent of the NYPD.
Six decades later, 19 percent of officers at the NYPD are women; the national average is 12 percent, a number that’s remained stagnant since the 1990s, despite research that shows that on average, female officers use less force and achieve equal if not better outcomes.
Studies also show women have better relationships with diverse communities, are perceived as more honest and compassionate, have better outcomes for crime victims, make fewer discretionary arrests, have fewer citizen complaints and cost jurisdictions less in civil lawsuits.
“I think it’s 100 percent true,” said O’Connell on recalling her days with the NYPD. “I would see an arrestee being taken in and I thought there was no reason to be as rough as you were being.”
“Most of the policewomen I ever worked with, they are into de-escalating. They’re into talking. They’re not into brute force or pulling the gun—that’s a last resort.”
When she became pregnant, O’Connell left the force and returned to nursing. She said she would have stayed if childcare had been available, affordable and if 18 months of maternity leave offered like WPB. At that time, she had already begun studying for the sergeant’s test.
However, she remains hopeful for the future of women in policing and encouraged more women to join.
“I think the women who have joined are doing a phenomenal job,” she said. “They are doing us all proud.”
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