“U” police to hire first women ‘patrol officers’

1973  MINNESOTA DAILY

by Harley Sorensen

Staff Writer

Three of the next five persons hired as University of Minnesota patrol officers will be women, University Chief of Police Eugene Wilson said Tuesday.  The women, two of whom are scheduled to begin work Jan. 16 will be the first female officers in the department, which now has 45 patrolmen.

Emphasizing that his police personnel ae now called “patrol officers” rather than “patrolmen” Wilson outlined the “unique” method used to select his new officers.

“We didn’t give them civil-service tests,” he said.  “Since they’re all college graduates, we assumed they knew how to read and write.  And we really didn’t think it was important if they thought Hennepin Avenue ran east and west rather than north and south.”

Wilson said he was given the names of 50 applicants from the university’s civil-service department.  The applicants were then screened by a committee known as the Police Advisory Council. The council is comprised of university students, faculty members, employers and residents of the university community.

Of the 50 applicants, 20 were selected as “excellent candidates,” Wilson said.  The “excellent candidates” were then interviewed by the other half of the advisory council, which ranked them as  “excellent, “ “good” or “poor” candidates for police work. As a check on the council’s ratings, Wilson, his assistance chief and two police captains made

“to be continued”

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