Jeanne Clark
Deputy Superintendent (retired)
Chicago Police Department

Jeanne Clark does not fit the mold of the typical police officer. She freely admits that her career in Law Enforcement began as a fluke. In 1971, she graduated from St. Xavier University with a double major in English and German. Armed with a liberal arts education, but no teaching credentials, she went to work for an insurance company but soon grew bored. She returned to school and in 1975 earned a Masters Degree in Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of Illinois, Urbana. She had a life of teaching and writing fiction mapped in front of her. Wrong! The Chicago Police Department called.

As a result of a Federal lawsuit in the 1970s, the City of Chicago began hiring women to be police officers. For the first time in history, women would be given the same training as men, wear the same star and uniform, and receive exactly the same pay. Jeanne, always a bit out of step with pompom squads and fashion rages, figured she had nothing to lose, so in 1975, she entered the Chicago Police Training Academy.

She found that she adored police work. She describes her early days as living a novel that has yet to be written. She loved being outdoors, being her own boss, being where the action was, helping people with real problems, bringing order to chaos and thwarting bullies and criminals. She had found her niche.

From the entry-level position of patrol officer, she rose through the ranks, serving throughout her career in every Bureau of the Department. She held the ranks of Youth Officer, Sergeant, Lieutenant, Detective Commander, District Commander, Assistant Deputy Superintendent, Deputy Chief and finally, Deputy Superintendent. When she retired in 2001, she reported directly to the Superintendent as the fifth highest-ranking officer in a force of over 16,000.

She left her mark in the Bureaus of Operational, Investigative, Technical, Administrative and finally Staff Services. She was a pioneer in cracking the "brass ceiling" as the first sworn female to hold the following ranks: Detective Division Commander; District Commander; Assistant Deputy Superintendent (street deputy); Deputy Chief and finally, Deputy Superintendent.

Since retiring from the Chicago Police Department, in addition to starting her own consulting firm, Jeanne Clark has returned to her first love: writing. She has just completed a screenplay and is currently working on "that novel that has yet to be written."

In August of 2002 Jeanne Clark started working for TSA and is currently the Federal Security Director at Midway Airport in Chicago, Ill.