From San Diego to Bay Area, this officer continues her historic run
Mention the word “pioneer” to Hercules police Reserve Officer Connie Van Putten, and immediately her mind goes to a baseball diamond, a place that’s never far away from her soul.
“Jackie,” she says, referring to Jackie Robinson, the man who in 1947 became Major League Baseball’s first Black player. She mentions the “barriers he broke” and the “courage he had to go out there and be different than everyone else.” She talks about the “strength and tenaciousness.”
It doesn’t dawn on her that she is describing much about her own legacy as a pioneer in policing, as she broke gender barriers in Southern California and the Bay Area in a 56-year career that continues today.
“She absolutely is and was a pioneer, too,” said retired Union City police Capt. Hank Berberian, who was in his position when Van Putten was hired there in 1987. “She has paved the way for so many women.”
Van Putten’s story seems an appropriate one to tell with the start of Major League Baseball, because it can’t be told without America’s grand old game as a backdrop. She grew up rooting for pitchers Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and the Los Angeles Dodgers and later, upon her move to California, learned to love the Giants.
“The more I think about it, the more I realize how baseball helped prepare me for my professional endeavors,” Van Putten said. “You need to learn and follow the rules; learn from the veterans and teach the rookies; be part of the team, but do your part to support the team; keep your eye on the ball and always know what is going on around you; and if you make an error, learn from it and make sure you do it better next time.”
She followed that path to a remarkable life that in its 78 years has included:
• Becoming the first female to achieve the rank of patrol officer, sergeant and lieutenant in a big-city (San Diego) American police department.
• Her designation as the first member of the JapanBall Hall of Fame, an honor given to fans who have witnessed games in every Japanese baseball park (in America, she has been to every current major league stadium, save for Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, which opened in July).
• A tribute read to her on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
“I think the best compliment I ever received is that I set the bar high enough that it was worth reaching for,” she said. “But that it wasn’t set so high it couldn’t be reached.”
Van Putten had policing and baseball in her upbringing. Her father was a detective in the San Diego suburb of Chula Vista, and, without softball or baseball available to a girl growing up in the 1950s, she scored her brother’s Little League games. Those two parts of her life brought her a devotion to detail, as well as organizational, observational skills.
“The paying attention to details is a big, big part of what we do in policing,” she said. “You’re always having to watch what’s going on around you, you’re always watching hands. It’s similar to knowing where the runners are and what the situation is and what you’re going to do if the ball comes your way. Those details play into what we do every day.”
Van Putten grew up in a police family — her father and brother both were in law enforcement — but without a rejection letter from a nursing school, her own life may have gone elsewhere.
“I got another letter that same day that said I could take the test” to get into the police academy in San Diego, she said. “I decided to take the test.”
She hasn’t looked back. But it certainly wasn’t easy.
In 1965, the San Diego Police Department had only eight female detectives, referred to in the city budget only as “Police Women.” Van Putten carried a small Smith & Wesson pistol with a 21/2-inch barrel that she said she purchased because it “had better sights” than what she was issued.
She carried it in a small purse, along with ammunition and handcuffs. She and the other female detectives weren’t considered worthy of patrol work. She was required to wear dresses knee length and below. In 2021, Van Putten wears the full Hercules police uniform, complete with a Glock .40 Caliber in her gun holster. Technically, she’s a volunteer, but her reach goes way beyond that. She is the department’s public information officer and also has been a detective and in patrol since her official 2000 retirement.
“She found acceptance in a culture that wasn’t ready to accept her when she started,” Berberian says. “And she did it for the most part, just by being the amazing person that she is.”
In San Diego, she became the first woman to oversee security at Qualcomm Stadium, then the home of the MLB’s Padres and the National Football League’s Chargers. She did not become the first female chief, but an officer who worked under Van Putten — Shelley Zimmerman — later earned that distinction.
She also saved a woman’s life. Still a detective when it happened, Van Putten was the first one on scene after a woman collapsed in her home and found her lifeless on the floor. She and another officer performed CPR before the medics arrived and the woman lived.
“That’s something that’s been very rewarding in my life,” she said.
She left San Diego in 1987, when her husband of 46 years, Pete,was transferred to the Bay Area. In Union City, Van Putten rose to captain, becoming that department’s first woman to be a commanding officer.
“Acceptance was always a challenge for a female when achieving rank,” Berberian said. “The field was always looking to see what you’re about and do you have ‘combat experience,’ for lack of a better phrase. You know, have you been out in it? Who is this person? Have they paid their dues? Connie seems to have survived it, because of the person she is. She truly does care about everyone.”
It was that trait, as much as anything else, that helped Union City’s police department navigate its way through a particularly tough period, Berberian says.
“She came to us at a time when we had lost three officers to cancer in a short amount of time,” Berberian said. “None of us were ready to really deal with it. She was a godsend in that regard. She had sensitivity and took over dealing with the personal side of it, working with the families of the officers and the officers themselves who were grieving. She really weathered us through that.”
Van Putten plowed through it in a baseball way — with steadiness, consistency and an empathy nurtured by an understanding of just how difficult the job at hand can be.
“What I remember about her is that she was always kind and compassionate to everyone,” current Union City Police Chief Jared Rinetti says. “I was new, trying to settle in, find my way around, and she just always made me feel welcome. She did that with everyone. And I can only imagine the obstacles she faced.”
The obstacles never were far away. But when they seemed too great, it was the self-belief that her love of baseball also helped to stoke that got her through, she said. In doing so, she said she never imagined she’d be getting others through, as well.
“I’m very flattered and humbled to know that the people I worked with thing I had something to offer,” Van Putten said. “Very humbled.”