The funeral for the first woman to serve as a Sioux City police officer is today. Janell Armstrong died last Sunday at the age of 84.
She grew up as Janell Daws on a farm in Willis, Nebraska and graduated from Sioux City Heelan High School in 1960, and then joined the Sioux City Police Department after going to the police academy in 1972. Her good friend Janet Comeau says joining the all male department was not easy for Armstrong.
“It was difficult breaking that glass ceiling and stepping into that with such fortitude and strength. Sometimes it was on a daily basis just trying to get through the shock of her being on the force as a woman. She really set such a precedent and paved the way for all the women that are there now,” Comeau says.
Comeau says one tough incident came when she arrested a large man who said he was hurt so she took him to the hospital. The man hit her at the hospital, but she kept going.
“She was hurt, but she had a role she felt to be so strong in the midst of all of this, being the first female officer,” she says.
Comeau says Armstrong was able to help many female victims of domestic abuse and assault cases because she had a different understanding of what they were going through. “That role as a woman police officer was so impactful to the women who were injured because there’s a compassion that comes from women who are victims that comes with an understanding that most men could not, especially at that time,” she says.
Janell published her autobiography “Patrolling the Darkness” in 2015 and told the story of how her faith guided her through her journey as the first female officer. Comeau says she started the first bible study in the police and sheriff’s department and she says many officers’ live were changed through Janell’s courage in sharing the gospel.
