Hey motorists, skip the double-take! That was a female officer in that squad car you just passed.

Three of the 57 sworn police officers in the DeKalb Police Department are women, which can make for interesting reactions.

DeKalb Patrol Officer Reda Reese, who has been on the force since June 1996, said that some motorists are surprised to see her when she makes traffic stops. Others, she laughed, try to act tough to intimidate her. In fact, she even has had men cry to try to get out of a ticket.

Sgt. Lisa Miller, from the DeKalb Police Department, who has been at the department for more than 12 years, said that some citizens get confused by seeing a woman in charge, but the startled reactions are less common than they used to be.

Miller was the second female officer to take a job in DeKalb when she was hired in September 1990. Her predecessor left the department in 1997, and Miller said she had left law enforcement all together.

Miller was the first officer to take a maternity leave nearly eight years ago. She said she had worked with union representatives prior to her pregnancy to ensure that maternity leaves would be covered in the contracts for her and for other officers in the future. This paved the way for the third DeKalb female officer, Kelly Sullivan, who is currently off patrol for the remainder of her pregnancy.

Miller said that the officers were good about helping her out around the office when she was assigned to desk duty during her own pregnancy. Some even gave interesting nicknames to the baby throughout the pregnancy, Miller said. The biggest problem Miller had regarding the maternity leave was being bored with office work.

Today Miller is a shift supervisor and has been a sergeant for two and a half years. But Miller admits that although her male counterparts basically were OK with having her on the force, she joined at a time when she had to prove to them that she could do the job.

Both Miller and Reese agree, however, that aside from the different locker rooms, they are just like the other officers. Reese said one of the perks of her job is getting to play practical jokes on her coworkers because everyone is good-humored about it. She, along with Miller, also counters the myth that female officers cannot do police work.

“There are a lot of women cops that do the job better than some guys,” Reese said.