A pioneer for 'law and order'
Ida Lippman brought a lifetime of working in criminal justice to Detroit in 1920, as she pioneered the Detroit Police Department's Women's Division.
Having developed an interest in law while working at the New York State Reformatory for Women in Bedford Hills, she also worked closely with delinquent young women as a parole officer.
After returning from a special overseas assignment with the U.S. Army in France during World War I, Ms. Lippman spent seven years developing the Detroit PD's Women's Division, supervising in cases involving young children and women.
Amazingly, during this time, Ms. Lippman also completed a course of study in law at the University of Detroit and was admitted to the Michigan Bar in 1927. She eventually left the police department to work first in the Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney’s office and then opened her own practice specializing in civil law in 1930.
She was honored in 1946 as the only woman in a seven-officer delegation to Seoul, Korea, where she organized a women's division of the national police force.
Ms. Lippman’s efforts earned her praise from General Douglas McArthur, who said that “her initiative, tact, professional ability, and untiring efforts to solve the complex problems involved in the creation and operation of a Women’s Bureau of the National Police, have been an inspiration to all the personnel associated with her.”
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