Janice A. Rzepecki: One of the First Women in the U.S. Park Police

Janice A. Rzepecki was born on September 9, 1946, in Cumberland, Rhode Island. After four years teaching middle school English, she became a policewoman.

Joining the Park Police

Rzepecki joined the U.S. Park Police (USPP) on Christmas Eve 1972 — the third woman hired in the early 1970s to wear its uniform. In Police School No. 4, from January to March 1973, she was the only woman among 48 recruits. Over the next eight to 10 years she walked foot patrols, did undercover work on drug use in the parks, helped with criminal investigations, and handled clerical duties in the Washington, D.C., area.

The "copter caper"

On the morning of February 17, 1974, Rzepecki heard a helicopter flying in restricted airspace over the White House. She tracked it and relayed its position to Park Police dispatch, who passed it to the U.S. Secret Service. When the helicopter finally landed and the pilot was caught, the Secret Service asked Rzepecki to handcuff him — only the "second or third time" she had used handcuffs in her 14 months on the force. The press called it the "copter caper."

Later years

In the second half of the 1970s she worked in clerical roles — first at the U.S. District Court in Hyattsville, Maryland, then as a typist at the USPP Training Section at Jones Point, Virginia. By 1979, rheumatoid arthritis of her hands and right foot made it hard to write, stand for long, or bear extreme temperatures. She applied for a disability retirement and was denied. Little else is known of her career, but she was no longer serving by 1986, if not earlier. She died on October 13, 1996, in Fairfax, Virginia.

More: Dressing the Part: A Portfolio of Women's History in the NPS · History of the U.S. Park Police

Sources

Based on "Janice A. Rzepecki," National Park Service, National Capital Parks-East, National Mall and Memorial Parks, and the White House and President's Park, drawing on Maurice Fliess, "She Put a Crimp in Copter Caper," Atlanta Constitution, March 3, 1974; the Internal Revenue Service's Women in Federal Law Enforcement (1992); B. Mackintosh's history of the U.S. Park Police; and Rzepecki v. Police Fireman's Retirement; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The research was supported in part by a National Park Foundation grant.