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Meet Lt. Heather Williams, Chattanooga Police Department’s only current female SWAT officer

Staff photo by Erin O. Smith / Chattanooga police Lt. Heather Williams leaves an interdepartmental meeting Wednesday, September 11, 2019 at the Chattanooga Police Service Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee. As a lieutenant, Williams spends a lot of time on administrative duties, including paperwork, running to-and-from meetings, advising subordinates as well as community and interdepartmental outreach.
Staff photo by Erin O. Smith / Chattanooga police Lt. Heather Williams leaves an interdepartmental meeting Wednesday, September 11, 2019 at the Chattanooga Police Service Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee. As a lieutenant, Williams spends a lot of time on administrative duties, including paperwork, running to-and-from meetings, advising subordinates as well as community and interdepartmental outreach.

By Rosana Hughes 6 min read

For Chattanooga Police Lt. Heather Williams, the department’s second – and right now only – female SWAT officer, National Women in Law Enforcement Day, which is Thursday, means recognizing the women who paved the way.

“It’s awesome that we have a day like that [to honor] the females that have dedicated themselves to laying the groundwork for the rest of us,” she said, in a nod to two of the first female officers hired by the Chattanooga Police Department.

The two women – Melinda Bryan and Helen Cooper – were recognized last month during the police department’s annual award ceremony.

Nearly 50 years ago, Bryan is credited with making it so that female officers didn’t have to wear skirts, police Chief David Roddy said during the Aug. 29 ceremony. And Cooper was one of the first women to graduate from the FBI’s National Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

“These are the women that braved and trail blazed that path for those cadets and we could not be prouder,” he said before presenting them the award.