On April 1, 1907, Lola Greene Baldwin, aged forty-eight, was sworn in as the first woman police officer in the United States. (Four years before she could vote -in Oregon.) Her appointment arose out of public concern for the "moral and physical welfare" of families and children.

She worked to protect single, working women from various kinds of "big city" exploitation, especially in prostitution, which was relatively unregulated at the time. Her unit, the Women's Protection Division, made a priority out of protecting women from the effects of prostitution, rather than simply punishing them for it.

Many of Baldwin's innovative ideas in the area of community and preventative policing are still in wide use today. To learn more about Baldwin, read A Municipal Mother, by Gloria E. Myers, or visit Portland, Oregon's Police Museum in downtown Portland.