Bio Channel Rides Shotgun With Lady Cops
‘Female Forces’ Hits Air Next Month
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 9/15/2008 6:44:00 AM
Bio Channel will launch its original series on women cops, Females Forces, on Sunday, Oct. 5, officials said Monday.
Bio channel has ordered 13 one-hour episodes of the show, where viewers ride shotgun with female officers from the Naperville, Ill., police department. Located in the Chicago suburbs, Naperville's 18 female officers fight a full gamut of big city crime.
One of the officers profiled on the show is senior patrol Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith, a former narcotics agent and law enforcement tactics expert. Smith is a tough cop, but also proud to be known as the department’s “princess.” At the range, she is known for unloading a full magazine from an AR-15 assault rifle and proudly declaring “all rounds on target, and no broken nails.”
Ten-year veteran officer Julie Lardino knows how to interview a suspect. This self-described "warrior woman" can be mean when the need arises, but isn’t afraid to use a softer touch to get a suspect to confess.
There’s also Sgt. Lisa Burghardt who says she grew up with four brothers so she's "never been intimidated by anything.” When Burghardt recently apprehended a suspect who'd been brandishing a weapon, her maternal instincts came out when she said “we're kind of upset that you're driving with these fake guns, and a baby in the car.”
