HILLSDALE, N.J.—The borough’s first female police officer also stands front and center in the department’s first all-female shift.
Sgt. Liz Zimmerman, Police Officer Amanda Turrin, and civilian dispatcher Amna Hijab found themselves sharing the night shift April 26 due to a humdrum schedule change—the duty sergeant that tour was supposed to be Michael Camporeale, but he agreed to switch with Zimmerman so she could attend her kids’ lacrosse games.
And it was he who first saw the amazing opportunity to capture an unprecedented moment for the department’s Facebook.
Under his photo of the three women—and a description saying “A little history being made on the night shift here at Hillsdale P.D. The first all-female shift are proudly serving and protecting!”—the likes and loves are even now pouring in, the shares radiating and connecting.
“Excellent, you’ve got this,” said Roberta Kahn Hanlon.
“God bless all the police, our heroes,” said Josie Britton.
“Why I love the HPD. You lead by example. Very cool. And it happened because the team was prepared to do the job! … Well done,” said Barbara Braun.
Sarah Larsen Christensen said, “Wow…this is a landmark night for women in law enforcement. I wonder how many departments can say that they’ve had an all-female shift? That glass ceiling is shattering! Thank you for your service, ladies!”
Geri Ramos said, “Thank you, ladies, and we are all proud of you! Be well and stay safe, we support you and all of the Blue!”
And Councilman Zoltán Horváth, a Viet Nam-era combat military police veteran and chair of the Fire Department and Historic Preservation committees, said “Hillsdale will henceforth be known as Themyscira” (a magical island nation in the DC Comics universe—home of Wonder Woman).
The import was not immediately obvious to the women on duty. Zimmerman told Pascack Press on April 28 that Camporeale asked to take the photo because the moment was living history.
“I’m like, what are you talking about, ‘This is history’? We’re treated just like anybody else, we feel at home here, we’re a very diversified police department, very progressive. So to us this is just another day of work,” she said.
“So we took the picture and posted it and started seeing the comments. That’s when it really sunk in,” Zimmerman said.
She described her reaction as “Oh my God, this is important! This is awesome, like this is an amazing experience: to be able to say that we work together, we protect together, but that we have all these opportunities through our town and that they believe in us and our community supports us.”
She said, “It was just a great feeling to see all the great comments and all the support and be an inspiration to other people out there—that this is our dream and we’re making it true, you know?”
The department spreads its resources in such a way that there are female officers and Spanish speakers on duty at any given time.
The moment was all the more remarkable, Zimmerman said, owing to diversity beyond gender.
Zimmerman, on patrol in her 20th year on the force, is Puerto Rican and the field training officer for the department. She was the department’s first female officer, and made grade in 2017. She’s also the domestic abuse liaison for the department.
“I’ve trained at least half the department, if not all of them, about 20 people, from the chief [Robert Francaviglia] to everybody. We have a lot of young people, a lot of young guys. They go through me and Sgt. Camporeale for training and we make sure they meet our standards,” she said.
Turrin, who started as a provisional officer in January 2019, was sworn in that May. She was born in Wayne, is listed as point person on the Child Abduction Awareness Program, and reportedly rocks a storybook-level farm in Warren County.
And Hijab, Pakistani-American, has been 9-1-1 dispatcher in Hillsdale going on two years. Her resume shows she’s a veteran U.S. Army combat engineer, having served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). Her languages: English, Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Gujurati, and Arabic.
The women’s historic tour went well—“Thank God,” Zimmerman said: “We only had an [auto] accident [to respond to] and an alarm [a burglar alarm to check out with a resident], and it worked out pretty good. We didn’t have any other issues, any other major calls.”
“Night shifts are pretty quiet to start with,” she added.
Asked about community policing, she said officers always look for ways to support the community and will be resuming more of that—including a Special Olympics initiative this month.
“We’re proud of what we do; we’re proud of our department and that we’re treated with equity. It’s amazing to be able to be so supported and work in a place that’s so open and hires people from all different backgrounds and genders and religions and everything—it’s amazing to be part of it.”
She said, “We signed up for the right reasons and I think in this type of climate that we’re in it’s important for people to know we’re here for them and that a department like ours, it’s so diverse.”
She added, “To me it’s an example for others to follow. And the commitment that we have with the community and the relationship that we have… there’s hope that we could all work together to make this world a better place. That’s what it comes down to.”