Mon. Feb. 8 at 10pm on WKAR-HD 23.1 & STREAMING | Female Minneapolis police officers seek gender equity. A fatal shooting threatens their progress.With the national conversation around police reform still resonating loudly across the country, Women in Blue shines a spotlight on the police women within the Minneapolis Police Department working to reform it from the inside. Filmed from 2017 to 2020, the documentary focuses on MPD’s first female police chief, Janeé Harteau, and three of the women in her department as they each try to redefine what it means to protect and serve.
After a conversation with a female police officer friend in 2014, Women in Blue director Deirdre Fishel was spurred to investigate whether women tend to approach policing differently than men and how such differences might impact public safety. Women in Blue follows Minneapolis Police Chief Janeé Harteau—MPD’s first female and openly gay police chief—and her uphill battle to reform her department, which, long before an MPD officer kills George Floyd in May of 2020, grapples with a troubled history of police misconduct and racism. Her efforts involve fighting the union to rid the force of corrupt police officers, re-training the rest, diversifying the ranks and, crucially, recruiting more women and promoting them into leadership at every level.
The film also follows three of these women from different ranks, each committed to reimagining her profession: Commander Melissa Chiodo, who is tapped by Harteau to serve as the head of Special Crimes, handling domestic violence and sexual offenses; Sergeant Alice White, one of the few Black female officers within the MPD, who leads procedural justice trainings; and rookie Officer Erin Grabosky, who joins the force at 22 and is quickly confronted with the reality of community distrust in the police.
After a high-profile, officer-involved shooting of an unarmed woman, Chief Harteau is forced into making a heartbreaking decision that threatens the gains of women represented on the force under her leadership.
Watch the special at video.wkar.org during or after the premiere date.