Emergence as a Public Leader, 1912–1913

This chapter details events in Josephine Roche's life from 1912 to 1913. The chance to serve as Denver's first policewoman drew Roche out of graduate school in 1912. She was thrilled to go back west. “I find a certain quality of life here that I hungered for in vain all the time I worked in New York,” she explained, “I think perhaps I can express it by saying I feel more master of myself here.” By “mastery” of herself, Roche did not refer to personal freedom, which New York offered in greater degree than Denver, but to something she craved even more than freedom. That something was power. Only months after taking the police position, Roche transformed it into a command post in the campaign against Denver's notorious political machine. As a policewoman, Roche emerged as a controversial public figure with a stomach for battle.