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Number of women serving in Navajo Police department growing


By Bill Donovan
Special to the Times

WINDOW ROCK - It was probably no surprise to her family when Irene Six decided to become a police officer in 1990.

After all, her brother and sister already had careers in law enforcement and she knew about the dangers of the job.

Now, 15 years later, Six is a Navajo Police sergeant stationed in Window Rock, and she has no regrets about making law enforcement her career.

More and more Navajo women seem to be making the same decision.

When Six joined the force in 1990, she was one of only a handful of female officers patrolling reservation highways.

Today, there are 76 women in the Navajo Department of Law Enforcement, working in almost every section. One of out of every five officers in the department is a woman and that percentage has been increasing almost every year.

Marshall Speirs, who has been on the force for the past year, is one of the newer officers.

She had planned to become a nurse but the nursing program at the University of New Mexico-Gallup shut down a couple of years ago. She worked in various jobs until one day decided to look into police work.

Speirs says now she has found a career to last the rest of her life.

Speirs and Six have families and they agree that one of the hardest things about being a police officer is the long hours and the toll it takes on the family.

“When I started I was single and had no children but now I have a 9-year-old and its hard sometimes,” Six said. “You basically have to be two people. You have to be a mom at home and then you have to be an officer and go to work.”

She said her daughter knows what her mother does and that it is dangerous to be a police officer. Just the other day, Six said, her daughter mentioned that she heard about a shooting and told her to be careful. “I told not to worry about it.”

Speirs said working in the police department means that she hardly sees her three children, who range in age from 5 to 13.

“But I knew this would happen,” she said. “I like my job.”

Although both are in a job that has been traditionally dominated by men, neither have any horror stories about harassment on the job. Both said that being a woman on the police force doesn’t result in any special treatment.

“We get the same types of assignments as anyone else,” Six said.

This includes, on occasion, dealing with uncooperative drunks and both said they’ve gotten their share of bruises. But it’s part of the job and the women said they were trained to handle tense situations so they just shrug it off.

Because of the department’s acute personnel shortage (the police force currently is looking to fill some 50 vacancies), doing a double shift also is part of the job on occasion.

But for the most part, the two said, they have managed to set up routines that allow them to devote time to their jobs and families.

“I think it’s important that you like your job,” Six said. “That is what is important to me.”

Both said they thought that women who want an exciting career could not go wrong with police work.

“I’m not sure if I would want my relatives to join,” said Six, “but it’s a good career. I really believe you can make a difference.”

She also pointed out that every day is different so boredom is not a problem.

“And while scary things happy from time to time, basically it’s a fun job,” Six said.

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