In a career filled with firsts, the face of Tacoma Police Department kept her Cool
Loretta Cool’s career was about firsts and breaking boundaries — even though it was unintentional and she was unaware at the time.
Hired by the Tacoma Police Department in March 1985, Cool was the first female minority officer on the force. (She’s Japanese-American).
She went on to become the first female officer to walk a beat, one of the first bicycle officers, a K-9 handler with the highest number of captures and the only woman to pass the SWAT team’s physical agility test. She also served as the department’s spokeswoman for the last seven years.
As her highly-decorated 35-year career ended this month in retirement, Cool, 57, said she’ll miss her co-workers but is excited to catch up on years of missed sleep.
“The coolest thing and the thing I’ll miss the most is all the wonderful people I got to work with, train with and learn from,” Cool said.
Grew up watching police shows
Cool never dreamed about being a law enforcement officer, though she grew up watching police shows.
She was working as a purchasing agent assistant for a Fife company that made police radios when her boss pointed out a 1-inch newspaper hiring ad for the Police Department.
Since Cool met the basic requirements — was a U.S. citizen, had a driver’s license — she decided to apply.
At 22, Cool was hired as a patrol officer and went to work, driving from call to call loading bad guys into the paddy wagon and hauling them to jail.
She’d been employed for a year and a half when someone at City Hall informed her she was the first female minority hired by the department.
Cool went to a picture board of all sworn employees and stared.
They were right. She’d never noticed.
“It’s great that they finally made that inroad, but I would have expected that it happened in the mid-70s,” Cool said.
Lots of hiring changes were happening back then, and in fact, Cool’s hiring list was frozen for a time while another candidate contested the department’s policy that recruits had to be 29 or younger.
After a while, Cool began walking a foot beat on South K Street and became the first female officer to do so.
Then she switched to a bicycle.
The department hired a professional trick bicycle rider to train her and her partner to ride over benches, up stairs and jump mounds to help them in pursuits.
First woman on SWAT
After Cool earned respect from her male co-workers for excelling at patrol work and occasionally subduing suspects with Judo, a few of the male SWAT team members approached her to ask if she thought she could pass the physical agility test.
“They didn’t think women could pass it, but they were kind and I felt like I had five big brothers running around with me,” Cool said.
The men worked out with her, ran with her daily and came down to Fort Lewis during her two-week school to help her train.
“It was a really good experience,” Cool said. “I was the first female on the SWAT team and to date, the only female to pass the entry-level SWAT physical test.”
She said she never faced discrimination within the department, and even men her superiors had warned her about treated her with respect.
“It doesn’t matter the gender, it matters ability. And she could certainly do the job,” said Lt. Dan Still, who was on the SWAT team with Cool. “She was very competent, level-headed and friendly. She was able to incorporate firmness with compassion.”
After some time, Cool switched from being a physical member of the SWAT team to being a negotiator.
“Negotiators are in the hub of what’s going on,” she said. “I liked that better than doing the same drill over and over again. I liked the uncertainty of not knowing what’s going to happen.”
She remained on the SWAT team for more than 20 years.
K-9 success
Next up was the K-9 unit.
Cool applied three times before they chose her. She paired with a German Shepherd named Axle.
“Working with a dog was probably the highlight of my career,” Cool said. “I learned so much from the dog and learned so much about myself and tracking people.”
She loved rushing to scenes where colleagues couldn’t find the suspect or a crucial piece of evidence and having Axle come to the rescue.
In a six-month span, Cool and Axle set a department record with 54 captures.
She’s quick to caution things were different back then because they went on far more calls than K-9 partners today. In fact, Cool often left her police radio on at night and would rush to scenes where she thought her dog could help.
Face of the Police Department
After that, Cool worked as a community liaison officer on the Eastside, addressing quality of life issues.
It was her last assignment before becoming the public information officer in 2013.
Cool dealt with media inquiries, spoke to community groups and went to schools to talk to kids.
“It’s a good break from going out and catching bad guys,” she said. “It’s important and vital that community members are informed about what police are doing.”
Sometimes the gig was fun, other times it was heartbreaking.
When Officer Reginald “Jake” Gutierrez was fatally shot in the line of duty Nov. 30, 2016, Cool had to stay with the media and give hourly updates on live television rather than rush to the hospital to check on her friend.
She had to decide which pieces of information to release so as not to endanger her fellow officers who were still engaged in a SWAT standoff.
She had to keep certain details back to protect Gutierrez’s family and ensure they learned about critical developments before the public.
Late last year, Cool decided it was time to retire.
“It’s time,” she said. “I reached my goal working on the Police Department for 35 years.”
Her immediate plans are to sleep seven hours a night, play with her dog and get in more softball and Judo. Eventually, she’d like to travel.
Chief Don Ramsdell said he’s grateful for the dedication Cool showed to both the department and the community she served.
“She committed herself 100 percent,” he said. “She served as a great example for a lot of officers. She would pursue anything she wanted to pursue and every assignment she had. She excelled and really worked hard to be the best she could be.”
