Many Firsts on the Way to Chief
Christine Ziemba
 

When she was promoted to lieutenant in the Cheektowaga (NY) Police Department in 1985 Christine Ziemba told the Buffalo News that she was “getting kind of used to being a standout and being observed.” After all, she had been the first female officer in the department and now, the first female lieutenant. Since there were no sergeants, she was actually the first woman to hold any supervisory rank.

The people of Cheektowaga may be excused for thinking they lived in an echo chamber when, on March 30, 2002, Lt. Ziemba, became Chief Ziemba, the first woman chief of police in western New York State and one of only a handful within the state. 

Chief Ziemba’s career is a profile of the proverbial local boy who made good—the only difference is that she is the local girl. The Chief, born in Buffalo, came to Cheektowaga with her family in 1968, attended local schools, studied police science at Erie Community College, graduated from Buffalo State College, and worked as a police officer at the University of Buffalo before becoming Cheektowaga’s first female officer in August 1976, the same month she received her degree. Although she was the first female police officer in suburban Erie County, she had worked at her new department as an intern and was fulfilling a long-time dream of becoming a police officer.

Despite what appears to have been a charmed career path, the Chief admitted recently that she hadn’t thought consciously about becoming chief until the test results were announced and she was number one on the civil service list; which did not assure her the position. Ziemba was one of three inside candidates for the position, although one, a captain who was the brother of the chief who preceded Ziemba, asked not to be considered for the job, leaving her and another lieutenant as the only candidates for the job. Nepotism was not an issue; her predecessor, Chief Bruce D. Chamberlin, she says, had groomed her to be the next chief, and her own brother is also a police officer in the department.

In a recent interview, Ziemba said that any hesitations she had about going for the job were personal rather than professional. Although she is single and childless and didn’t have to move very far, the decision to campaign actively for the position meant selling her house and moving into Cheektowaga. And although Chief Chamberlin kept putting her on “the front lines of many controversial and hot topic situations,” she had to think for the first time about what it would mean to be the chief. For this reason, she said is amazed when she interviews new police candidates today and discovers they are already thinking about being chief. 

The breeziness of these new applicants is even more shocking to her when she realizes that despite having been mentored by the previous chief and having filled many administrative positions, she is surprised at how much of her time is spent on administration. In addition to approving and signing vouchers and reviewing and signing evaluations, she has also spent considerable time on personnel issues. These issues have entailed moving from the extremes of hiring new officers to having to bring the department through its first line of duty death since 1977.

The department’s first woman

Chief Ziemba’s career mirrors that of many chiefs who rise through the ranks except for the fuss at the time of her appointment. Local reporters, reflecting the “man bites dog” press coverage that surrounded the hiring of women in the 1970s, described her as young, slim, pretty, blue-eyed, blonde, etc. There were even the obligatory comparisons to Angie Dickinson of TV’s “Police Woman.” Amid the stereotypical comments, though, some did mention that she had completed the Erie County Police Academy with an A average and had “had no problems” with either physical fitness or firearms training. Less young, still slim, and still blue-eyed and blonde (although with far shorter hair than the below-shoulder-length she had as a rookie), the Chief recalled that she was under close scrutiny during the early part of her career, particularly while she was on patrol, and again when she was promoted, although she said she believed it was no different than for any other women appointed during that first wave of women’s transition from policewomen to patrol officers. 

“I’m sure many of the women in NAWLEE recall the same hoopla,” she said laughingly, “although at the time it did put us all under tremendous pressure.” Reflecting early the confidence that would help her become chief, immediately after her appointment she said that even though she knew it would not be easy being the first woman, her fellow officers would just have to learn “to cope” with her and with the situation. 
When she was promoted to lieutenant in 1985, Ziemba remained sensitive to her novelty status. But, she said, although it was going to be “an adjustment on everyone’s part—having a female supervisor,” she also did not anticipate any major problems. Her promotion also brought about an adjustment for her, since it took her out of the detective division and back into uniform as the midnight tour patrol supervisor. The Chief encouraged women who wanted to reach the top to weigh options carefully before turning down any assignments, particularly those that involved supervision. “Investigative work, particularly the work I was doing in sex-abuse cases, can be very rewarding, because you are really helping people, but to help yourself move ahead, you must have supervisory experience, too,” she said. 

Chief Ziemba tried to avoid being typed into particular kinds of assignments; at the time of her promotion to chief she headed the Crime Resistant Unit, an assignment she’d held since 1991. She received greater visibility in 2001 when Chamberlin selected her to help him deal with accusations that the department had engaged in biased policing. Having worked closely with him to reduce crime and improve relations between the police and the community, she said she was prepared for two of the biggest challenges she now faces: providing services to an aging population and responding to the changed ethnic makeup of a community that was once overwhelming Polish but is now comprised of large numbers of blacks and Hispanics. 

Despite her commitment to diversifying the department, after more than a year as chief she has not been able to hire any officers who are members of minority groups. With 130 budgeted positions, there isn’t much turnover. There are a total of seven women in the department (including the chief and an officer who was hired in July.) No minority candidates placed high enough in the last testing cycle to be considered for positions. To increase her applicant pool, Chief Ziemba has produced a video that is shown on public access cable TV, rented advertising space on public transport, and distributed posters, in addition to attending school and civic group job fairs and career days. She is concerned that her first minority police officers, “just like the first women, need to be outstanding candidates, as there will be a lot of attention focused on them.”

She isn’t saying this is necessarily fair, but her own experiences tell her that it is accurate.

Helping officers deal with death

Hiring officers requires imagination but is basically a bureaucratic process; losing officers, particularly to a line of duty death, is a personal process. No officers had died in the line of duty since 1977, so when Det. Wasyl Potienko was killed in an accident that occurred at the corner of the street where his mother lived, it was a tragedy for his family, his department, and his community. The Chief made sure she was at the hospital with the department’s chaplain so that she could personally inform the detective’s wife of his death and stopped by his mother’s home to express her condolences. She also made sure to attend each tour’s briefing to personally inform his colleagues and she was present throughout the entire visitation period at the funeral home to represent the department, and to welcome officers from other agencies who came to pay their respects. She said she was surprised at the impact this had on his family, but she was also concerned that a TV station’s attempt to turn the death into a story on how the “new chief” or the “female chief” was dealing with the situation would distract from the real story. “I was,” she recalled, “aware of how I was being observed as to how I would deal with the funeral” particularly after she was asked by the family to deliver the eulogy. 

Although Chief Ziemba rarely draws attention to leadership style differences that may exist between men and women, in this case, she believes it was an immense benefit to be a female because she was “very comfortable in expressing compassion and warmth; something my male counterparts might not be as comfortable doing.”

Did she still believe, then what one member of the Town Board had said at the time of her selection, that: “More important than being the first female chief, Chris Ziemba is the right choice.” Oh yes, she said confidently, noting as she had then, “whether Christopher or Christine, I’m the best person for the job.”