Sapulpa Police Quadruple Number Of Female Officers With 3 New Hires

The Sapulpa Police Department just quadrupled its number of women in uniform from one to four.

Skylar Vaughan, Jennifer Williams and Cady Byrnes were sworn in this week as Sapulpa police officers.

"It's definitely a step in the right direction. I agree with that," Vaughan said.

Vaughan is a former Tulsa County dispatcher and Williams was an officer in Pennsylvania.

Both women said they never expected their hiring to be such a big deal.

"It's actually pretty cool,” Williams said. “I came from a department that had a lot of females and coming here to only having one other female prior…I made two when I joined."

"They all welcomed us with open arms and everyone here wants to see us succeed," Vaughan said.

Williams started with the department last summer, while Vaughan and Byrnes were hired in January.

Captain Glenn Coffey said having more women on the force gives officers a different perspective.

"They just offer such a vast array of different thought process, ways to be able to communicate," he said.

Vaughan said, "We all do the same job but it does help them with, like, searching females and sometimes talking to victims who are female."

Vaughan and Williams both said they aren't treated any differently, and their fellow officers expect only the best out of them.

"We meet the same standards the men do,” Williams said. “Everyone has the same standard to be hired on here, so everybody's just as capable to be hired here."