By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org
When Kim Koster started her college career, her plans did not include going into law enforcement much less becoming the chief of the Wyoming Department of Public Safety.
“When I started at Grand Rapids Junior College, and back then it was a junior college, I was in interested in teaching,” Koster said during a recent interview with WKTV. “But then I took a criminal justice class and I found it intriguing, and, at the same time, I was working out at a local gym and my instructor for aerobics was a Wyoming police officer.”
About 15 percent of the sworn on-duty officers are women with about one percent serving as head of their departments. It makes Kent County unique in that in many of its law enforcement agencies, women are leads in various departments with Koster and Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young, heading up two of the county’s three largest law enforcement departments.
“I grew up on the east side of the state,” LaJoye-Young said. “My father worked for the Shiawassee County Sheriff’s Department and became the sheriff. I remember going to restaurants and community events and everyone would come up and talk to him about issues they were having and I just loved how he could pour into their lives and the community.”
With that desire to serve the community, but not work for her father, LaJoye-Young moved to West Michigan and joined the Kent County Sheriff’s Department in 1989. Koster joined the Wyoming Department of Public Safety in 1996.
Throughout their careers, neither woman had the goal of eventually becoming chief or sheriff, but rather to simply do their best.
“It was never anything that I aspired to,” Koster said. “Things happened in my career where doors opened or a door was cracked and I decided I was going to take the opportunity to walk through and that is what I encourage other women to do.
“I think sometimes we don’t see those doors or we are afraid to walk through them and I just decided I would walk through it and see what would happen and I think even the day I was promoted chief, I was still a little surprised at myself that I had taken that role on.”
The history of women in law enforcement dates back to the mid-1800s with women serving as matrons in New York City jails. Widows of police officers were hired by departments to work with women and children and one of the first persons to do so was Marie Owens who was hired in 1891 by the Chicago Police Department. The beginning of the 1900s, the Portland Oregon Police Department swore in the first female officer, Lola Baldwin.
However it was not until the Civil Rights Act passed in 1971 that women’s roles in law enforcement expanded and helping the perception that women were cable to serve were such shows as “Policewomen” and “Charlie’s Angels.”
“I focused everyday at being a leader in whatever group I was working within…,” LaJoye-Young said. “Making sure I was always putting my best foot forward, doing the right thing for the right reasons and advocating for others if I was in a position to do so and I think when you are working in that way leadership positions kind of naturally happen.”
Koster or LaJoye-Young wouldn’t deny there have not been challenges, but more so from the overall actions and reactions to law enforcement.
“I thought it was just so important what we were doing and for women to be involved in policing,” Koster said. “I just knew there was a reason for us to be there and I knew that people were really being responsive to women in policing and developing good relationships with the public.”
With LaJoye-Young adding that the importance of having someone like you when faced with a situation remains a key benefit in helping to resolve problems.
“The more variety you have on your police department or sheriff’s department the more prepared you are to deal with the circumstances that you are faced with,” LaJoye-Young said. “Law enforcement changes so quickly and is so dynamic and there is such a variety of things. There are some places that a female is more successful. There are some places that somebody of color is more successful.”
The key is having that “heart to serve,” Koster said, adding it is what she looks for when talking to a potential candidate. Someone who can listen and show empathy, she said, adding that she encourages people interested in the profession to reach out to their local law enforcement agency to talk to officers in the field. There are also several places that offer criminal justice programs such as the Kent Career Tech Center (for high school students) and numerous colleges such as Grand Rapids Community College. Local departments like the Kent County Sheriff’s Department and the Wyoming Department of Public Safety also have cadet and internship programs.
“I feel like law enforcement in general is at the beginning of a very dynamic change,” LaJoye-Young said. “I think you are going to see a lot of things in law enforcement really go in a different direction in the next decade or so. There couldn’t be a better time to get into law enforcement to be part of that progress, to be part of that adaption.”
