One small town in northeast Iowa has a police chief who’s not only fighting crimes, but fighting stereotypes. Monona, a town of about 15-hundred people, has a woman as its police chief. Monona Police Chief Jane Scott-Quandahl says it doesn’t matter how much experience you have, you’re going to be “tested every day” if you’re a woman cop. Having a female police chief is rare, but Monona is even more unusual because the city’s only other full-time cop is a woman. The two part-time Monona police officers are women, too. Scott-Quandahl says their estrogen-laden office atmosphere doesn’t fit the stereotype. “I know women are the worst fighters and, you know, the trivial things that we fight over,” she says. “But we’re working. It’s professional.” Scott-Quandahl says she’s proud of her department’s crime-solving rate. The latest statistics show 94 percent of the crimes reported in Monona have been classified as “solved.”
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