Posted on Nov 26, 2020
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.
 
The author of Vancouver's Women in Blue, Carolyn Daley, started with the Vancouver Police Department in 1975 as a Constable and retired as Deputy Chief Constable the first woman to reach that rank -- in 2003. The book was 17 years in the making since her retirement.