North Carolina has six black female police chiefs for the first time in history

'This is what 21st Century policing looks like'

For the first time in North Carolina’s history, the state has six African American women serving as police chiefs.

When Catrina Amelia Thompson was recently sworn in as the police chief of Winston-Salem, she brought to half-a-dozen, the number of black women serving as chief law enforcement officials in the state.

“The fact that I’m standing before you as an incoming police chief is a testament to the fact that if I can do it, anybody can do it, and I want our children to know and believe that,” she said, according to the Winston-Salem Journal. “We always talk a lot about what to do in the future, but if we don’t take the time to invest in the youth in our community, we have no future.”

A month before, Gina Hawkins was sworn in as police chief Fayetteville, a city with a population of 200,000 and located 60 miles from Raleigh.

“I do recognise that I am the first female minority coming in to Fayetteville and that means a lot. I will represent to the best. I will not fail. I will do everything to represent, women, minorities, but also the profession of law enforcement,” she said in August.

A local media channel, WRAL, recently brought together some of the women to talk about the challenges they face in a state that has long experienced racial discrimination, and a profession that often fails to promote women.

“We’ve broken a glass ceiling,” said Raleigh’s police cheif Cassandra Deck-Brown. “So, becoming chief, the honour is knowing that somebody else has that opportunity to get there.”

Ms Hawkins and CJ Davis, police chief in Durham, both started their careers at the Atlanta Police Department in Georgia. They said racial diversity was not a an issue there, but said there were very few women.

“Even far into our careers, it was always a proving game,” said Ms Davis.

Patrice Andrews, the police chief of Morrisville, said she also felt she was having to prove something to others.

“There was a proving ground,” Ms Andrews told the news channel. “It wasn’t because I was a black woman. It was because I was a woman, and I think [everyone just wanted] to see, ‘What is she really made of’.”

Winifred Bowen, who is also an African-American woman, is chief of police in Littleton, North Carolina. She and Ms Thompson were not present at the roundtable conversation.

Ms Deck-Brown said the women’s success marked a “paradigm shift in policing”.

“This is what 21st century [policing] looks like. All we need is the opportunity. Some do it better than others, but we need the opportunity,” she said.

Ms Andrews added: “Know that it’s not just happening here. It’s happening in Dallas, in Portland it’s all over. It’s happening all over, and I just tell you, I love the black girl magic.”