Pioneer female officer faced down fears

Web Posted: 11/05/2006 11:47 PM CST

Vianna Davila
Express-News Staff Writer

As one of the first female police officers in the city, Martha Schnabel guarded prisoners and chased down the bad guys — and she did it all in a skirt.

"It was kind of hard to run sometimes," admitted Schnabel, who in 1958 became one of the first women to join the force. An officer at a time when women couldn't wear pants to work, Schnabel eventually became one of the first two women to achieve the rank of sergeant.

She celebrated her 80th birthday and her tenure as a police officer Sunday at the Club at Sonterra. She officially turns 80 today.

"She's an inspiration to us," said San Antonio Police Department Officer Cindy Brown, one of a handful of current officers who attended Schnabel's birthday party.

According to the SAPD Web site, there are currently 156 women on the department's roughly 2,000-member force.

"She's like a pioneer in policing," agreed police Capt. Harry Griffin.

"It was scary," said Schnabel, who was 31 when she joined the department. "I walked into that room, and all the men were there, and I thought, 'Dear God, what am I gonna do?'" she said.

Most men were supportive.

But she also put up with the occasional person who called her "that little policewoman." She lived with the jokes when she first stepped out on the shooting range and everyone ducked when she was about to fire her first rounds.

Then she put them to shame.

"I was raised with brothers," she said. "I knew how to shoot."

After graduation from the police academy, she became jail matron, or guard, before Bexar County took over the facility. She eventually became one of the first female detective-investigators and later an undercover narcotics officer.

She was even a featured guest on the television show "To Tell the Truth"

Then she made the ultimate stride, becoming sergeant, only the second on the police force, according to a report in the San Antonio Express-News.

"When I made sergeant, everyone said, 'You don't expect those men to take orders from you?' And I said, 'Yes they will.' And yes, they did," Schnabel said.

Her career came to an end in 1971. During a training session, she said, a fellow officer jabbed her with a nightstick and cracked some of her ribs. Doctors eventually diagnosed her with osteoporosis, and she had to retire.

Schnabel later chronicled her adventures in her book, "Officer Mama."

She also continued to blaze trails. She became the first Republican and first woman elected Wilson County judge, in 1990. She held the seat until she lost a bid for re-election in the 1998 Republican primary.

Today she still follows police matters, every time she sees a squad car pass her by: "I say, 'Dear Lord, keep them safe.'"
vdavila@express-news.net