A proclamation honoring the life and service of the late Denver Police Detective Gail S. Riddell.
, right on the corner on the district seven side of federal. And it was really cool to see this finally moving forward. So thank you for that. All right. So no other announcements. We're going to move on to presentations. There are no presentations. There are also no communications. But we do have two proclamations this evening. Councilman Sussman, will you please read Proclamation 263? I will, Mr. President. Thank you. It is my great honor to read proclamation number 0263 honoring Denver Police Detective Gail Radel for Women's History Month. Whereas the Denver Police Department is celebrating the 160th anniversary of its founding in 1859. And. Whereas, women have played a very important role throughout the history of the department first serving as matrons, managing and running the jail in the 1920s as inspectors of theaters, leading law enforcement efforts against sex trafficking. And in the late 1960s, joining their male counterparts on the streets of Denver fighting crime. And. Whereas, in 1977, President Jimmy Carter, through executive order, declared March of each year as Women's History Month. And. WHEREAS, The Denver Police Department and the Denver Police Museum have chosen March 2019 to honor the life and service of late Detective Gayle Riddell. And. Whereas, Gayle was born in 1946 to Mary Margaret in Salem, Oregon, and later adopted by Robert Riddell. And. WHEREAS, Patrolman Riddell joined the Denver Police Department in 1969, at the age of 23, after getting into a fiery debate with a male friend who insisted that women could not succeed as police officers. What did he know? And. Whereas, Officer Adele brought her full dedication to work every day and persevered in a role without precedence serving in the Patrol Division Communications Bureau. Burglary. Theft. Shoplifting. Units of criminal investigation. And. Whereas, in 1976, she was promoted to detective due to her strong work ethic, immense attention to detail, and her uncanny ability to engage people inside and outside policing. Stating that a police officer must be a composite professional, including social worker, humanitarian and teacher. And. WHEREAS, in 1990, Detective Riddell was named Colorado Policeman of the Place Woman of the Year. Whereas Gayle, in her personal life adopted her daughter Molly, serving as a single mother, community leader and Denver police officer, all with distinction. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Council of the City and County of Denver, that Section one, the Council hereby recognizes and honors the life and surface of the late detective Gail Riddell and her service to the citizens of the city and county of Denver. Section two that the Clerk of the city and County of Denver shall attest and affects the seal of the city and county of Denver to this proclamation, and that a copy be delivered to the family of Detective Riddell and the Denver Police Department. Thank you. Councilwoman Sussman, your motion to adopt. I move that we adopt proclamation number 20263. It has been moved and seconded. Are there comments by members of council? Councilwoman Sussman. I am so honored to be able to do this. I got to got been able to do this for several years in a row now and especially doing it on Women's History Month, honoring our one of our wonderful policewomen. Of course, all of our police department are people that we treasure and thank for keeping us safe. There's a lot of you here. How about all of those who are representing the police department? Please take a stand so we can see you and cheer for you. I'm always so heartened by how many folks come today, including our chief, Paul Payson. So thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to honor this special woman in the way that we have. And I urge my fellow council persons to vote for this proclamation. Thank you, Councilwoman Sussman, and thank you so much for bringing this forward. Madam Secretary, roll call. Baby Sussman. Hi. Black. I. Espinosa. I Gilmore. I Herndon. I. Cashmere. I can each i. Lopez. Hi. New Ortega. Hi. Mr. President. Hi, Madam Secretary. Please close voting. Announce the results. 1111 are proclamation to 63 has been adopted. We do have 5 minutes allotted for proclamation acceptance. Councilwoman Susman, is there someone you'd like to call up to accept? Yes. I'd like to call up Molly Rydell, the daughter of the woman that we are honoring. And I think Deputy Chief Barbara Archer was also going to come up. So please come up to the microphone. I know my mom would be really honored if she were here, even though she wasn't a big attention person. So I'm really glad that you wanted to do this and really honored. So I'm excited to accept this. Thank you. I'd also just want to say thank you again for the opportunity to recognize Women's History Month and the impact women have had on the Denver Police Department, and specifically the life and service of Detective Gail Riddell. She was a trailblazer for other women in the department. She paved the path for future generations that included opportunities for myself. There's a lot of retired police women here tonight who I'm proud to call friends and family. So as you heard that Gayle joined the police department in 1969 on a kind of a dare or a bet that women couldn't succeed in police work. And, well, he was clearly wrong. I've got a lot of colleagues here to prove that she continued to prove him wrong throughout her 30 year career with the police department when she made detective. Her area specialty became shoplifting, and she was really known for her strong work ethic. And like you heard, she could bring people together and talk to people from any walk of life and make them kind of find common ground. So with that, she took the initiative to create a network of retailers to address the increasing problem of shoplifting. And this was back in the mid eighties when it was really a new emerging problem. And she brought retailers together, combining information from law enforcement and from businesses, this information sharing. We were successful in identifying serial shoplifters and establishing prevention models that are still in existence today. So I just want to say thank you for taking the time to honor the service of Detective Gail Riddell. Thank you very much.