JoAnne Fisk began her career in public service as many in law enforcement do, somewhat by happenstance and entirely unintentionally. But what started as a dare for her quickly became a life-long passion to help people. Her career now spanning four decades, JoAnne Fisk the Deputy Chief of Biddeford Police Department is showing no signs of burnout or a desire to get out. Given that law enforcement is a male-dominated profession, the team here at MCRS was interested in her unique perspective on all things related to law enforcement in Maine.
Recently, the ‘DC’ shared some of her thoughts on being a woman working in a non-traditional role and in the evolution of police work here in Maine.
JoAnne had a calling to help others, and she started out as a volunteer on a rescue unit. “It was a dare.” Some of her friends on the Old Orchard Beach rescue unit dared JoAnne to apply for a reserve officer position with the town. That was in 1978.
She loved the work, and she was hooked!
The next stop along her path as a dedicated public servant was in communications at the York County Sheriff’s Office and then to “the road” and graduation from the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in 1980. While working at York S. O. she spent about a year assigned to Maine’s first drug taskforce unit in large part because she was a woman. There were very few women willing to take on such a dangerous role back then, but JoAnne was eager to help.
As many young police officers do, JoAnne saw greener pastures elsewhere and left York County S.O. for a position with Biddeford Police Department’s patrol unit where she stayed for close to two years. Still not satisfied, she joined the Kennebunk Police Department where she rose to the rank of patrol sergeant from detective. By that time in her life, JoAnne was looking for higher pay and a work schedule more amenable to family life. She found that combination of higher pay and better hours, and what became a permanent home for her back with the Biddeford Police Department.
While a more favorable work schedule and higher pay enticed her to go to work for the city of Biddeford upon reflection, JoAnne thinks she may also have been running away from something, something traumatic, in York County. The something haunting her was a tragic house fire where seven members of the same family perished. She recalled carrying out the small body bags containing the lifeless remains of the children and how she hated to drive by the charred remains of that house during her patrol shifts. “I didn’t like the constant reminder of it.” “It was a seminal moment for me.”
It is important to note here that police officers in Maine go about their duties answering calls for service and taking each one on as they are assigned without any idea of how a call will end. From house fires and car crashes to gruesome suicides and officer involved shootings, it’s impossible to predict what will happen next.
Research tells us crimes and traumatic events involving children typically have the biggest impact on police officers. Anecdotally, many police officers agree, critical incidents involving children have a way of sticking with you. Piling up like barnacles growing on the bottom of a boat, traumatic events can accumulate over time diminishing one’s quality of life. On the surface, above the waterline, everything looks fine. But lurking beneath the surface are the unseen scars and wounds from a career in police work.
From the perspective of a trauma specialist, it is easy to see how JoAnne’s experience in York County could have influenced her decision to work someplace else.
You can’t make me do it!“
“You can’t make me do it” was JoAnne’s response to the change from her tried and true Smith & Wesson .357 in stainless steel to a 9mm semiautomatic. The “pray and spray” crowd, as they were commonly called back then, was advocating for the transition to the higher capacity firearms “…but I was really fast with the speed loaders” [and] “I didn’t see the point” she said. Looking back on the transition from revolvers to semiautomatics now, JoAnne mused “change can be difficult.”
Women Need Not Apply
In a profession dominated by men, JoAnne was the only female working the road at York County Sheriff’s Office when she started and the only one at Kennebunk P.D. The Biddeford Police Department was apparently a more avant-garde department as there was one other woman wearing a badge when JoAnne signed up.
There have been some demographic changes in the ranks of the police officers since JoAnne’s first assignment with Biddeford P.D. According to data compiled by the State of Maine, in 2019 there were 194 sworn female police officers on the job and Biddeford Police Department was credited with employing five of them.
“When I started [in law enforcement] the public was less accepting of female police officers than they are today. You could just tell when I arrived on scene [the citizens were hoping for a male police officer]”. But her peers “…never treated me differently” … “I always had their respect.”
Hitting The Glass Ceiling
It wasn’t until the end of our conversation when JoAnne shared another side of the “glass ceiling” experience. She once had a male supervisor tell her “I’m going to drive you out of here because I don’t want to work with a woman.” JoAnne’s response was to figure out how to be effective managing her career despite the hostility displayed by that one supervisor. Undaunted by the negativity and bolstered by the support she received from her male peers, she successfully pressed on with her career.
Another challenge confronting JoAnne was that of being a single mother. She would occasionally have to be in court following her midnight shift when she was supposed to be at home with her toddler. Unable to be in two places at the same time her resolution to the physics-related conundrum was to bring her daughter to court with her. She laughed talking about how all the judges new her daughter by name and would playfully engage with her. When asked if she thought her 4-year old’s mandated “jury duty” harmed her daughter in any way JoAnne replied laughing “she is a highly respected public defense lawyer now.” Hmm. Let’s ponder that for a moment…
National Headlines
In more recent times, Deputy Chief Fisk has found it painful to watch national events unfold and adversely impact the law enforcement profession here in Maine. From a President’s rush to mischaracterize two Massachusetts police officer’s actions to the “stomach-turning” in-custody death of a suspect played out on the national news, it has all had an impact on everyone who wears a badge.
Despite all the negative national press in recent years, the Biddeford Police Department enjoys a high police officer retention rate and few if any problems recruiting new police officers. In a department of 55 sworn officers, as of this interview, they were down just two people. That’s a ratio many departments in Maine would be grateful to have.
The DC explained part of the department’s retention rate success is due to their selection process. She noted they do an extensive background investigation on each candidate, then conduct a polygraph examination, and finally, each candidate undergoes a psychological evaluation. She was emphatic about maintaining their high standards in selecting the right candidate. “The work we do on the front end [of hiring a new employee] saves us time, money and aggravation on the backend [having to deal with problematic employees].”
Advances in Technology
Deputy Chief Fisk wears many hats in her role at Biddeford Police Department and one of them is handling Internal Affairs. Because of her investigations into allegations of police misconduct, she is an advocate for body worn cameras (BWC). In her experience BWCs have exonerated more officers than she could count. From her perspective, most police officers are in favor of BWCs given their evidentiary value in protecting them from false accusations. She draws the line at live-streaming BWCs noting all the technical complications associated with their use and the idea of how labor intensive it would be to monitor them.
In Conclusion
As for the male supervisor who told JoAnne he was going to run her off, he certainly demonstrated that change can be difficult. He wasn’t interested in seeing his “boy’s club” infiltrated by the likes of a woman. The MCRS team doesn’t know what happened to him or where his career ended up, but we do know JoAnne Fisk has made it to the rank of Deputy Chief of one of Maine’s largest police departments and she isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.