1996 Historical Honoree JOSEPHINE SEARS DAVIS

CONTRIBUTIONS AND/OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

In 1914 the Girls’ Protective League began discussing the necessity for women police officers in dealing with individual girls detained by the police for “investigation” in Detroit. In many instances the League staff were being called in for consultation, along with personal and social adjustments after the girls were discharged from custody.

The League directors gathered all the available information concerning women police and in 1916 began their campaign for women officers. In November of 1917 the League petitioned Common Council for appropriations to pay the salaries of three women officers, but it wasn’t until 1919 that women were actually hired. Mayor Couzens had appointed Dr. James Inches, who was serving as Commissioner of Health, to be Commissioner of Police at the time.

During the farewell to his staff and corps of nurses Dr. Inches commented, “If women will be the help in the Police Department that nurses are in the Health Department, I will appoint a hundred of them.” Shortly afterwards, he appointed one woman officer to interview all women and girls held in the Police Detention House, on a trial basis. In March of 1919 Miss Josephine Sears Davis, a University of Michigan graduate and member of the Girls’ Protective League, was appointed. Miss Davis had cooperated in many instances during Dr. Inches’ administration of the Health Board.

Josephine established and carried such an exemplary program of social adjustment with women taken into custody by the police that by July, 1921 the Detroit Police Department had fourteen women officers. In 1923 the City Charter of Detroit was amended to provide, in law, for a woman director of a Woman’s Division, who should rank as Deputy Commissioner.

OTHER OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS:

Prior to being employed by the Detroit Police Department as its first woman officer, Josephine was an investigator with the Girls Protective League and the Detroit Board of Health. She was employed with the police department until June of 1921, during which time she also served as part-time secretary for the Washtenaw County Chapter of the American Red Cross. Following her resignation from the police department, Josephine worked as assistant field director at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Great Lakes, Ill. She then moved to Grand Rapids and served as field representative of the Red Cross in western Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. She is a former president of the Grand Rapids section of the National Association of Social Workers. In 1936 she returned to the Washtenaw County Red Cross, serving as executive secretary until her resignation in 1941 to assume a similar position in Ingham County with headquarters in Lansing, Michigan. She left the Lansing Chapter circa in 1955 and moved to Grand Rapids. Her health failing, she went to Coldwater to live with her sister, where she passed away in 1962.

WHY THE CANDIDATE IS ESPECIALLY DESERVING OF THIS AWARD:

Josephine Sears Davis was the woman chosen to carry the banner -- after years of “positioning” to bring women to the Detroit Police Department. Her outstanding performance in a very brief amount of time provided the opportunity for other women to be hired and the eventual creation of a Detroit Police Department Women’s Division.