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Newark, New Jersey introduces first female police chief

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Summary of story from the Star-Ledger, August 9, 2011

The US city of Newark, in New Jersey, has appointed Sheilah Coley its first female police chief. She is a 22-year veteran of the police department.

When she was growing up, she told her cousin, an undersheriff, who paid her to polish his police gear, she was going to be a cop some day, but he said: “Girls can’t be sheriffs.”

He didn’t say anything about police chiefs.

Coley has now called on residents and police to work together to bring an end to gun violence. Newark, the largest city in New Jersey, is known for having a high crime rate, though the rate has fallen since the 1990s. In March 2010, it celebrated its first murder-free month since 1966.

Meanwhile, in 2007, the UK had more than 36,000 female police officers, 22 percent of the total: in the US, only 13 percent of police officers are women, according to the National Center for Women and Policing.

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