Penny Harrington, the USA’s 1st Female Chief of Police

“Thank you Penny Harrington for blazing the trail and building a mentoring organization for others. That is true leadership. Salute.” – Jane Hall

For this month’s theme, we will be interviewing a number of women from around the globe who have reached the top of the world’s most prestigious and male dominated professions. This is the story of Penny Harrington, the USA’s first female Chief of Police for a major city, who also founded The National Center for Women & Policing, an organization which specializes in gender issues in law enforcement.

Penny Harrington began her police career in 1964 as a “policewoman” in the Women’s Protective Division of the Portland Oregon Police Bureau. After a few years, she began challenging the policies that prevented women from working in all aspects of policing and prevented them from taking promotional exams. Penny then became the first woman to be promoted to Detective in 1970, Sergeant in 1970, Lieutenant in 1977, Captain in 1980 and was appointed as Chief of Police in 1985, making her the first woman to lead a major-city police department.   Read more