PENNSYLVANIA, USA — Editor's note: The above video is from July 5.
The Pennsylvania State Police are celebrating 50 years of women in the force today by "honoring the trailblazers" who initially broke through the all-male barrier decades ago.
On July 7, 1972, 14 women graduated from the Pennsylvania State Police Academy with the 31st Cadet Class, and the surviving members of the class have been invited to a ceremony in their honor at the academy in Hershey.
“These women were motivated to enlist by a sense of duty and a genuine interest in police work,” Colonel Robert Evanchick, commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, said in a statement. “We owe them a debt of gratitude for their roles in breaking barriers and blazing trails that have helped make this department what it is today.”
The Pennsylvania State Police was the United States' first state police agency to fully integrate female troopers into the regular command structure, according to a press release.
Kathryn (Hosmer) Doutt was the first woman to head a bureau when, in 1995, she was promoted to major and assigned to serve as director of the Bureau of Patrol, and Lucinda Hammond (Hawkins) became the first female trooper to receive the Pennsylvania State Police Commendation Medal, one of the department’s highest awards, in 1989, also according to the release.
The following is a list of the other members of the 31st Cadet Class:
- Regina Adams
- Jill Bairhalter
- Romaine Engle
- Judith Galloway
- Nancy Lightner
- Judith McCarr
- Ann Metcalf
- Patricia Moe
- Kathryn Neville
- Mary Connie Rossetti
- Doris Sott
- Barbara Wharrey
For more information on the Pennsylvania State Police, click here.