First Women on Horseback and in Command: Valerie Fernandes in the U.S. Park Police

In February 1980, Valerie Fernandes and Priscilla “Pepper” Karansky became the first women horse-mounted officers since the U.S. Park Police (USPP) began equestrian patrols in 1933. Fernandes went on to be the first woman lieutenant in the force and, in 1992, its first woman captain. This account of her career comes from the National Park Service (NPS) History Collection, which draws on a 1980s oral history and on NPS newsletters.

From a desk job to the Park Police

Fernandes started at the Social Security Administration in 1974 as a customer service representative. In 1976 she saw a civil service newspaper advertisement for work outdoors with little supervision or paperwork, with the USPP, a unit of the NPS operating in Washington, DC, New York and San Francisco. After two years behind a desk, the idea appealed to her at once. She went to Washington for an interview and a written examination.

She joined the USPP as a private in May 1976. After training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia, where her class, Police School No. 63, ran from June 12 to August 3, 1976, she was assigned to the Central District in Washington and patrolled around the monuments. About four months later a post opened in the New York Field Office, and she moved to it. She spent the next nine and a half years at Gateway National Recreation Area.

A woman on a mostly male force

At Gateway, Fernandes was one of three women on a team of 50. She often handled work that her male colleagues could not, such as investigating complaints in women’s restrooms and responding to women who were victims of sexual assault. She remembered that in 1976 uniformed women were an oddity in New York, drawing more stares than in Washington.

At Gateway she trained in police procedures and in tasks such as scooter patrol, drug enforcement and hostage negotiation. She also worked undercover, and she felt that being a woman helped: people did not see her as a threat or expect her to be an officer.

The mounted course

The eight-week mounted course at Rock Creek Park in 1980 combined stable duty, animal care, classroom training and riding with police procedures such as interrogation, arrest and firearms use from horseback. Both women earned awards: Karansky the Equitation Award, Fernandes the Scholastic Achievement Award.

Officers Valerie Fernandes (left) and Pepper Karansky, 1980. NPS History Collection photo, HFCA-02006.

Fernandes described a horse-mounted officer as a curiosity, with a 1,200-pound partner. She saw several advantages in mounted patrol: constant contact with people, most of whom are interested mainly in the horse; a crime-deterrent effect from the officer’s visibility; a wider field of vision from the height; and, in crowd control, a horse that does the work of several officers.

In 1980 the force was more than 95 percent male. Asked what women add, Fernandes pointed to her own approach: she talks to people to gain compliance, and she thought that was the best way to work.

Promotions

Fernandes is congratulated on her promotion to lieutenant by the chief of the Park Police and the regional director, 1985. NPS History Collection photo by Charles Pereira.

A broad range of assignments

Her career took in a good deal beyond patrol. Fernandes attended the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and was detailed to the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Alexandria, Virginia, as a visiting fellow. She chaired several promotion boards for sergeant and lieutenant. She started bicycle patrols in the parks, choosing the uniforms and equipment after arranging training from the George Mason University Police Department, and she helped with the hostage negotiation program.

While working on a master’s degree in Urban and Environmental Planning at the University of Virginia, she became interested in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design and used that interest in recommending ways to reduce crime in unsafe areas.

She retired from the USPP in 2000, when a former Maryland police officer she had trained with in hostage negotiation exercises offered her a job in the Special Operations Training Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. She left that bureau in 2004 after almost 30 years of government service.

Sources

• National Park Service, Valerie Fernandes, NPS History Collection, Harpers Ferry Center (part of the Dressing the Part women's history portfolio); the page cites an oral history interview, personal communications with the History Collection's archivist, and NPS Courier newsletter items of 1985 and 1989. Her own words are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.