It's hard to designate who was America's first policewoman because it depends on how you define "police woman." Around the turn of the 20th century, suffragists and women's temperance groups advocated for female police officers to handle social crimes and defend powerless victims, but the women hired for these positions often had no authority to arrest on their own, nor did they carry weapons.
Alice Stebbins Wells was the first woman appointed to the Los Angeles Police Department in 1910. Her duties began as supervisor of public places that had questionable morals, such as theaters, arcades, and dance halls, but as time went on, she was called on to question women and children who were victims, witnesses, or perpetrators of crimes and to investigate domestic violence, which male officers didn't want to get involved in. Wells' position in the LAPD went from not being taken seriously to crucial in the protection of women and children. Wells advocated, and got, more policewomen added to the LAPD's roster. Read about her career and what it meant at Smithsonian.
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