Setting the Record Straight
Shortly following publication, errors in our article, ‘Women Behind the Badge’ (May, 2020) were brought to the attention of our editors. These errors misattributed the experiences and misrepresented the service of some of those featured. Sun Rays would like to take this opportunity to correct these inaccuracies and reprint the biographies of these officers as they should have appeared.
CORRECTIONS
Cara Boyd entered the Austin Police Academy in 1998, not 1994. There were six other women in her class, not five. When Boyd retired, she was the 5th highest ranked woman in her department, not the highest.
Kathy Fritzsche’s first assignment was not combating prostitution; she was involved in a neighborhood effort to eliminate prostitution from her area prior to becoming a police officer. She is a volunteer for the Georgetown Police Department as well as the Sacramento Police Department.
Connie Hartsfield was commissioned as an officer in 1976 without completing the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Recruit Academy; at that time, a college degree could be accepted in lieu of academy graduation. Graphic anecdotes about being a woman in law enforcement were misattributed to Hartsfield, who did not share any such stories, nor did she experience incidents such as being handcuffed to a staircase, uncovering hidden sexual devices or being surprised by explicit images during briefings. It was Carol Robertson, not Connie Hartsfield, who discovered a dead rattlesnake hidden in her patrol vehicle. Hartsfield never expressed a desire to run to her boss or cry, to internalize anger or humiliation, or to embarrass others with snarky responses.
Elaine Meckler was a reserve officer with the Los Angeles Police Department before becoming a correctional officer with the Nevada County Correctional Facility.
Carol Robertson discovered a dead rattlesnake in the trunk of her patrol car, not Connie Hartsfield. Robertson left the department due to an on-the-job injury. She began studying to become a paralegal prior to moving to Las Vegas, not after.
Linda Watkins worked for the El Lago and Taylor Lake Village Police Department near Houston, Texas, and not for the Houston Police Department.
WOMEN BEHIND THE BADGE
Cara Boyd believed becoming a police officer was her calling since she was 10 years old. Television shows like Cagney and Lacey and Charlie’s Angels only reinforced that dream. When Boyd entered the Austin Police Academy in 1998 there were over 35 men in the class and just six other women. Over the course of her career, she was occasionally presented with the unique challenges faced by women in policing, but worked hard to overcome such obstacles. Rising through the ranks, Boyd retired as a Lieutenant in 2018, the 5th highest-ranked woman in the department at that time.
Kathy Fritzsche always wanted to be a police officer, but due to height and weight requirements was unable to pursue her dream. While involved in a police/community partnership aimed at removing prostitution from her area, Fritzsche learned that a federal court case had eased the restrictions preventing her from becoming a police officer. She applied to the Sacramento Police Department in California and, at 37 years old, successfully passed her test and was accepted into the police academy. Fritzsche’s 21 year career included 16 years on patrol, community policing, probation searches, neighborhood engagement, undercover heroin buys and the full spectrum of crime in her city. Retired since 2008, today Fritzsche serves as a volunteer for the Georgetown Police Department, as well as for the Sacramento Police Department when she is back in California.
Connie Hartsfield can’t recall when she didn’t want to be an investigator. Hartsfield was first commissioned as an officer with the State Capitol Police in 1976 and joined the Texas Department of Public Safety in 1981. Hartsfield held a number of roles in her nearly 30 years of proud service, including Executive Protection Detail, Governor Protective Detail and Criminal Intelligence, and spent the final 12 years of her career as a lieutenant in the Internal Affairs Division.
Elaine Meckler waited until her two sons went off to college before joining the Los Angeles Police Department Reserves. For 15 years, Meckler worked a regular job during the day and served with the LAPD two to three nights per week before retiring. When she and her husband moved to Grass Valley (home to the Nevada County Sheriff Headquarters), Meckler took a position as a correctional officer for the Nevada County Correctional Facility, where she was responsible for finding living situations for inmates which would cause the least amount of conflict. She acknowledged some harassment from male inmates, but described it as minimal, noting, “If you give respect, you get respect.”
Barb Parker always enjoyed being active. When the television series ‘Police Woman’ came out, she recalls mentioning to her mother how she wished she could be a cop, too. A year later, Parker took the first exam available to women for street-level police work (prior to that point, women had been relegated to office work) and joined the Cleveland Police Department as a patrol officer. On numerous occasions, Parker volunteered to serve as a decoy, successfully apprehending two serial rapists and one exposer. Parker became not only the first female officer in her district’s detective bureau, but the youngest as well. Her devotion to catching rapists and child abusers led to her becoming an expert witness in those two fields – the first police expert in Ohio. After leaving her original district she spent six years doing drug forfeitures and seizures before finishing her career in the gang unit. Following an on-the-job accident, Parker – a certified SCUBA diver, boating instructor and first aid instructor - was offered a position in Ports and Harbors. Parker ultimately turned down the job, however – she liked the action on the streets!
Sandra Reeves joined the Harris County Sheriff’s Department in 1982 as a civilian at the Information Center and later at Booking and Release at a satellite facility. After six months she realized how much police officers were paid to book and release inmates, so she applied and was accepted into the academy. Perhaps because she was already working with police officers in the area, Reeves didn’t have as difficult a time being accepted as others. She completed the academy and was assigned to ride patrol with another female officer in Houston. That experience affirmed Reeves’ transition from civilian to officer. “I was bit!” recalled Reeves. After three years on patrol, Reeves once again returned to the satellite facility outside Houston, where she remained until she retired as a Lieutenant with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office after a 29 year career.
Carol Robertson was attending college and working as a part-time secretary for the campus police chief in Boulder, Colorado when a violent sexual assault on campus hit her hard. She started the Boulder Colorado Rape Crisis Team to provide support to victims of sexual violence. This experience led her to apply to the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department. After completing the academy with one other female, she joined the department as one of four women. Robertson endured her share of discrimination and taunting within the department, including one incident in which she found a dead rattlesnake in the trunk of her patrol car. But she kept her head down, worked hard and earned the respect of her fellow deputies. Due to an on-the-job injury, Robertson left the department after 12 years of service and began studying to become a paralegal. While still in school, Robertson was hired by the largest law firm in Las Vegas; she moved there from Denver, sight unseen. Through a contact made as a paralegal, she returned to law enforcement as an investigator working white collar crimes for the Nevada State Attorney General's Office. Robertson served in that position for seven years before hanging up her shield.
Nancy Snead was a school teacher when, at age 27, she was drawn to serve the community as a police officer. The decision was easy, the process was not. Encountering skepticism and push-back at the academy and department levels Snead recalled, “Women were not very welcome. You just had to put your head down and do a good job so it would be easier for the next one to come along.” Nancy became the first female patrol officer in Richardson, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. She smiled as she described her first traffic stop: “The driver looked so surprised. He said ‘You’re a woman!’” Would Snead recommend law enforcement as a career to young women? Absolutely! “Being a police officer isn’t always about tickets and arrests. People would be surprised how often cops help in other ways.” Snead currently volunteers with the Georgetown Police Department.
Linda Watkins had a degree in counseling and was working with teens in the Houston area when she decided to become a police officer. “Only police officers had access to the records I needed to help kids, so I went to the academy and joined the force. I was the only female in my class.” Watkins joined the El Lago and Taylor Lake Village Police Department, just outside of Houston. Assigned to crime prevention in neighborhoods and at schools, she developed puppet shows in an effort to reach juvenile audiences. When the nearby NASA facility requested a rape prevention class, Watkins was assigned. Not wanting to delve into specific incidents of bias, Watkins stressed that she worked hard, didn’t complain and eventually her male counterparts accepted and even liked her.
