There was a re-naming ceremony this morning at the 3rd District Chicago Police station in the Grand Crossing neighborhood for the first female CPD officer to be killed in the line of duty.
Officer Dorelle C. Brandon was working undercover in 1984.
She was 35-years-old and had been on the job for about 6 years.
She and her partner got separated at the back of an apartment building by burglar bars. She was on one side with a drug dealer, according to the department. The bars were locked. Her partner was on the other side.
She struggled with a drug suspect. Her partner shot through the bars.
He accidentally killed her.
“Officer Brandon had stepped into roles that had never been opened to women before,” said First Deputy Police Superintendent Antoinette Ursitti during the ceremony held outside the station at 7040 S. Cottage Grove Ave.
“It is impossible to stand here as a woman in law enforcement without acknowledging that Officer Brandon re-shaped what this department could be,” Ursitti said. “She helped make it normal for women to serve, to lead and to stand shoulder-to shoulder with every officer in this city. That’s why today matters, that is why naming this station for her matters.”
Ursitti said the station is the first CPD station to be named for a fallen officer.
Several other female officers - white shirts, including deputy chiefs - said Officer Brandon paved the way for them.
Retired CPD officer Matt Brandon was her husband.
He said the men didn’t make it easy for the woman when his wife served.
“Women really had to struggle back then,” he said. “I was an arrogant male pig.”
He went on to tell a story about how he started to come around.
He walked into the station one day, looking for his wife, he said.
Her friend, Officer Rita Pritchett was at the front desk.
“And I said, ‘hey, baby,’” he recalled.
“And Rita stepped back away from the desk and she said, ‘what did you call me officer?’ I said I called you baby and she said ‘I’m not your baby.’
She said ‘I’m officer Pritchett,’ and it was at that moment that I began to understand that I had to respect my sisters who were out here doing what I did.”
Retired Officer Rita Pritchett, who worked with Officer Dorrell Brandon, is credited with pushing to make the name change happen.
“This is a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful occasion,” she said.
She sang the song “Somewhere in My Lifetime” during the ceremony.
Video of the ceremony can be seen on the Facebook page of the Chicago Mayor's Office.
https://www.facebook.com/ChicagosMayor
Mayor Brandon Johnson spoke during the ceremony, noting that about 30 percent of CPD officers are now women.
“Isn’t it about time that a woman leads this department,” Johnson said.
Interim Police Superintendent Fred Waller said Officer Brandon “worked twice as hard as her male counterparts to prove that she was just as tough as them and just as qualified to be a Chicago Police Officer.”
He said her place in history should not only be defined as the first female officer killed in the line of duty.
“Her place in history should be defined by the courage she exemplified and in every life she worked to protect.”
First female officer killed in the line of duty
First female officer killed in the line of duty
