Vancouver's Women in Blue is a tribute to the 125 women who have served the Vancouver Police from 1904 to 1975, from their early roles as matrons and, after a long, slow course, eventually as police constables.
In 1904 Mata Raymond was the first woman Vancouver Police hired as a matron to supervise women in jail. In 1912, Canada’s first two women started serving as full constables on active duty. In the mid-1930s women continued to double as police constables and matrons. It wasn’t until 1973 that Sharon Smith was the first female constable to be sent out in a patrol car with a male partner.