Janice A. Rzepecki

Officer Janice Rzepecki, 1974. (Courtesy of the Associated Press)

Janice A. Rzepecki was born September 9, 1946, in Cumberland, Rhode Island. She taught middle school English for four years before becoming a policewoman. Rzepecki joined the US Park Police (USPP) on Christmas Eve 1972. She completed the Police School No. 4 training course, held January to March 1973. She was the only woman in the class of 48 recruits.

In addition to patrol work, Rzepecki conducted some undercover work related to drug use in parks and assisted with criminal investigations. On the morning of February 17, 1974, she heard a helicopter flying in restricted airspace over the White House. She tracked and communicated the location of the helicopter to USPP dispatch, who relayed the information to the US Secret Service. When the helicopter eventually set down and the pilot was apprehended, the Secret Service asked Rzepecki to handcuff him. It was only the “second or third time” that she had used handcuffs in the 14 months she had been with USPP. A newspaper account of the “copter caper,” as the press dubbed it, reported that Rzepecki was one of only 10 women among 500 men with USPP.

During the second half of the 1970s, Rzepecki served in clerical roles, first at the US District Court in Hyattsville, Maryland, and then as a typist at the USPP Training Section in Jones Point, Virginia. By 1979 Rzepecki suffered from rheumatoid arthritis of the hands and right foot, which had made it difficult to write, stand for prolonged periods, or tolerate temperature extremes. She sought a disability retirement but was denied. Little else is known about her career, but she was no longer a serving officer by 1986, if not sooner. Rzepecki died on October 13, 1996, in Fairfax, Virginia.

Sources:

Fliess, Maurice. (1974, March 3). “She Put a Crimp in Copter Caper.” Atlanta Constitution, pg. 11.

Internal Revenue Service. (1992). Women in Federal law enforcement. University of Michigan Library.

Mackintosh, B. (n.d.). National Park Service: History of U.S. Park Police. National Park Service. Retrieved May 20, 2022, from https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/police/police6.htm

Rzepecki v. Police Fireman’s Retirement. https://casetext.com/case/rzepecki-v-police-firemens-retirement, retrieved May 26, 2022.

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This research was made possible in part by a grant from the National Park Foundation.