LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The Los Angeles Police Department's Northeast Community Police Station will be renamed for the first woman to hold the rank of deputy chief at the department, the Los Angeles City Council voted today.
Margaret Ann York, who died last October, was appointed deputy chief at the department in July 2000 before leaving the LAPD in 2002. She started as a policewoman in 1968, when the LAPD did not promote women past the rank of sergeant, and women were only tasked with working on issues involving women and children, according to the motion to rename the station the ``Deputy Chief Margaret Ann York Northeast Community Police Station.''
The motion was introduced by Councilmen Mitch O'Farrell and Joe Buscaino on March 2, with Councilman Kevin de León and Councilwoman Nithya Raman seconding it.
``Chief York achieved the rank of investigator, detective supervisor, lieutenant, captain and commander, and on July 30 of 2000, she was promoted to the rank of deputy chief by then-Chief of Police Bernard Parks, the first female deputy chief in the history of the Los Angeles Police Department,'' O'Farrell said before the vote.
York ended her career in law enforcement as Chief of Police of the Los Angeles County Office of Public Safety, which handles law enforcement for all county hospitals, parks and buildings, O'Farrell said.
Buscaino, a former LAPD officer, worked under York, he said before the vote.
``It was an amazing day in Los Angeles when Chief Parks made that appointment (of York to deputy chief),'' Buscaino said.
``It's also very appropriate, members, that we take this action today during Women's History Month because Chief York was the first woman in history of the LAPD to get appointed to the rank of deputy chief,'' he added.