An excerpt from the book, Pensacola’s Finest in Pictures,” available on Amazon
By Mike Simmons
The first mention of it was in the July 20, 1954 edition of the Salt Lake Tribune when Journalist Ed Valentine penned, “It’s sure nice to stroll down or up main streets these days and see women working. I’m referring, of course, to Salt Lake’s new “Meter Maids” – the gals who are manning the parking mater while our male cops are out in the street jamming up afternoon traffic.” They were a hit! Everyone thought how great it was to hire “Meter Maids” to enforce parking regulations in their towns.
Salt Lake was quickly followed by Morristown, TN, Moab, UT, Oklahoma City, OK, Madison, WI, and a slew of others. It was all the rage…kinda like a fad.
On February 27, 1958, the Pensacola City Council approved a new program to use females parking control officers. Of course, they were never referred to as “parking control officers.” Popularly known as “Meter Maids,” the program was designed to hire five qualified applicants to patrol the traffic areas of the city and issue citations to violators. The candidates had to be female, 108—135 lbs, at least 5’ 3” in height. Monthly pay was from $276 to $321. The first meter maids to take an oath were Betty Gent, Mildred Johnson, Elizabeth Rutherford, Elizabeth Hubbard, and Willie Bryan.
Chief Crosby Hall had done it – a bright light to the City of Five Flags. The five ladies soon became the talk of the town. Not so much by those who received the parking violations, but by everyone else. Men often remarked – in a genuinely complimentary way – at how nice it was to see the women walking downtown, enforcing the parking rules. The title of an article in the February 22, 1958 edition of the Pensacola News Journal read, “Look Lads, Gal Cops’ll haunt You.” It was all in fun…
As the saying goes, “It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.” On August 23, 1961, Mrs. Betty Gent was at the C&A Bar on Magnolia Street when she got into an argument with Mrs. Edna Wright. Things went south when Mrs. Gent pulled a gun out and threatened Mrs. Wright with it. Time to call the cops – or was a cop there already? Was Mrs. Gent a cop? After all, she had been hired as an officer. Her badge read the same as all Pensacola Policemen. It said “Patrolman” on it. Didn’t matter that night – Mrs. Gent went to jail.
On October 5, 1961, City Attorney F. Churchill Mellen expressed his concern: “I told Mr. Reed (Mayor Homer Reed) that it would be the most dangerous thing in the world to permit meter maids to attempt to make an arrest because the woman attempting to arrest a man could be seriously injured. For the protection of themselves and of the city they should not ever try to make an arrest.” Clearly, Mr. Mellen had never met Marsha Underwood.
Were Pensacola’s meter maids police officers or not? After all, in 1961, there were no certifications to determine if one had arrest powers. In fact, it was soon discovered that most of the lady officers carried guns, and a few had even made arrests! That did it. The five “Meter Maid” positions were abolished. Easy fix.
NOPE. It wasn’t that easy. From the police chief’s office to city hall to the courtroom. The ladies hired lawyers and the lawyers announced that the Meter Maids had been called police officers, so why were they punished for carrying guns? And how could they be let go without any consideration? The court agreed with the lady cops. Their positions were sort of restored, with back pay.
The next stop was to the civil service board, which voted to “downsize the department due to budget cuts and do away with the parking control officers. That ended the story of the “Pensacola Meter Maids.”
Interesting