Dear John,

I’d like to invite you to an upcoming event we are incredibly excited about: Join Ms. for an exclusive virtual screening of the Women in Blue documentary this Thursday, February 4 at 4:00 p.m PT / 7:00 p.m. ET! RSVP here. 

Women in Blue follows three female police officers—Cmdr. Melissa Chiodo, the first woman head of Special Crimes; Sgt. Alice White, who leads procedural justice trainings; and rookie Officer Erin Grabosky, who works the night patrol. In her moving documentary, Director Deirdre Fishel charts their progress and efforts to remake the department to become more inclusive, capturing the frustrations and hopes of Chiodo, White and Grabosky, who all struggle in different ways with the challenges of being a woman in a predominantly and traditionally male profession.

Then, stick around after the film for a live Q&A discussion, which will include two women featured in the film, Cmdr. Chiodo and Catherine Johnson, department director of corrections for Hennepin County; as well as Ganesha Martin, the chief of Baltimore’s Department of Justice Compliance, Accountability and External Affairs Division, who has served in several positions in Baltimore City government overseeing collaborative criminal justice efforts.

Fishel shared with Ms. that in her work to bring these women’s stories to light, she found herself asking one question over and over. As she puts it: “I started thinking about this notion… What could women bring to policing?”

According to decades of research, it turns out that women bring a whole lot to policing—and many experts are convinced that this is one critical key to reducing police violence. I hope you’ll join us for what is sure to be an important, thought-provoking event. 

For equality,

Kathy Spillar
Executive Editor