Elizabeth "Betsy" Watson was Houston's first female police chief. She served for two years before becoming the police chief in Austin, Texas, and then becoming a law enforcement consultant.

Early life

Watson grew up in Philadelphia but attended high school in Houston, after graduating from college and joining HPD, she met Chase in late 1973 when they were both assigned to the Houston jail, and they began dating the following spring. Since such fraternization was frowned upon, they used a police scuba-diving club as a cover. They married in 1976, the same day she was promoted to Detective.

Education

She received a degree in

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

from

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...

in 1971.

Career

Immediately after graduating, she applied for the

Houston Police Department The Houston Police Department (HPD) is the primary law enforcement agency serving the City of Houston, Texas, United States and some surrounding areas. With approximately 5,300 officers and 1,200 civilian support personnel it is the fifth-largest ...

, graduating at the top of her class. She commented that it was tough to be a female officer at the time, and her husband had coaxed her to take, and pass, the Lieutenant's exam after she was forced out of burglary division. To make up for her lack of street experience, she volunteered for night shift duty at some of the city's roughest substations. As deputy chief, she commanded the West Side Command Station, the first of five planned stations that are the cornerstone of Chief Brown's program to decentralize police work and make it more responsive to the community. When she was tapped to be the Chief, she would inherit a police force in turmoil or low morale attributed to low pay and a public mistrust of the police due to some recent shootings. With the swearing in of

Sam Nuchia Sam Nuchia is a professor at the University of Houston–Downtown. He previously served as an appellate judge and served 17 years with the Houston Police Department (HPD) beginning in 1967. Leaving HPD as Deputy Chief to become a prosecutor as a ...

as the chief, Watson was demoted to assistant chief earlier in the year, she took up a position at

National Institute of Justice The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is the research, development and evaluation agency of the United States Department of Justice. NIJ, along with the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Juvenil ...

where she worked as a researcher and adviser. The institute compensated the city for salary and benefits until Watson is eligible for retirement in December and She will be commuting between

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and Houston. A few weeks later, Watson announced that she would be taking the police chief's position at the

Austin Police Department Austin Police Department (APD) is the principal law enforcement agency serving Austin, Texas. As of Fiscal Year 2022, the agency had an annual budget of $443.1 million and employed around 2,484 personnel, including approximately 1,809 officers. T ...

, However, she said that she would be unable to take the position until December 5, which is the date that she would complete her 20-year status, and therefore is eligible for retirement pay. On December 5, 1992, Watson was sworn in as chief of police at Austin, Texas. She would resign in 1997 after a tenure racked with turmoil, police shortages, and other controversies.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Elizabeth Houston Police Department chiefs Texas Tech University alumni Living people People from Houston People from Austin, Texas People from Philadelphia Year of birth missing (living people)