Elizabeth Watson (police officer)
{{short description|Houston police chief}}
{{Infobox police officer
|name = Elizabeth "Betsy" Watson
|image =
|caption =
|birth_date = 1948-1949
|death_date =
|badgenumber =
|birth_place =
|death_place =
|nickname = "Betsy"
|department = Houston Police Department
|service =
|serviceyears = 1990–1992
|rank = Police Trainee - 1972
Detective - 1976
5px Lieutenant - 1981
12px Captain - 1984
20px Deputy Chief - 1987
40px Houston Police Chief - 1990–1992{{cite web|url=http://www.depts.ttu.edu/communications/news/stories/07-11-watson-elizabeth.php|title=Betsy Watson: Breaking Through the Gender Barrier|access-date=2010-05-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525063753/http://www.depts.ttu.edu/communications/news/stories/07-11-watson-elizabeth.php|archive-date=2011-05-25|url-status=dead}}
40px Austin Police Chief - 1992–1997
|awards =
}}
Elizabeth "Betsy" Watson was Houston's first female police chief. She served for two years before becoming the police chief in Austin, Texas, and then becoming a law enforcement consultant.
Early life
Watson grew up in Philadelphia but attended high school in Houston, after graduating from college and joining HPD, she met Chase in late 1973 when they were both assigned to the Houston jail, and they began dating the following spring. Since such fraternization was frowned upon, they used a police scuba-diving club as a cover.{{cite web|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,971789-4,00.html|title=ELIZABETH WATSON: Reforming Our Image Of a Chief|first=Walter|last=Shapiro|date=26 November 1990|publisher=|via=content.time.com}} They married in 1976, the same day she was promoted to Detective.
Education
She received a degree in psychology from Texas Tech University in 1971.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/20/us/woman-named-police-chief-of-houston.html|title=Woman Named Police Chief of Houston|first=Lisa Belkin and Special To the New York|last=Times|website=The New York Times |publisher=}}
Career
Immediately after graduating, she applied for the Houston Police Department, graduating at the top of her class.
She commented that it was tough to be a female officer at the time, and her husband had coaxed her to take, and pass, the Lieutenant's exam after she was forced out of burglary division. To make up for her lack of street experience, she volunteered for night shift duty at some of the city's roughest substations.{{cite web|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,971789-2,00.html|title=ELIZABETH WATSON: Reforming Our Image Of a Chief|first=Walter|last=Shapiro|date=26 November 1990|publisher=|via=content.time.com}}
As deputy chief, she commanded the West Side Command Station, the first of five planned stations that are the cornerstone of Chief Brown's program to decentralize police work and make it more responsive to the community.
When she was tapped to be the Chief, she would inherit a police force in turmoil or low morale attributed to low pay and a public mistrust of the police due to some recent shootings.
With the swearing in of Sam Nuchia as the chief, Watson was demoted to assistant chief earlier in the year, she took up a position at National Institute of Justice where she worked as a researcher and adviser. The institute compensated the city for salary and benefits until Watson is eligible for retirement in December and She will be commuting between Washington, D.C. and Houston.{{cite web|url=http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1992_1071656|title=Watson leaving for research job|publisher=}}
A few weeks later, Watson announced that she would be taking the police chief's position at the Austin Police Department,{{cite web|url=http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1992_1073842|title=Watson accepts Austin job offer/Police chief position is subject to approval|publisher=}} However, she said that she would be unable to take the position until December 5, which is the date that she would complete her 20-year status, and therefore is eligible for retirement pay.{{cite web|url=http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1992_1076062|title=State Briefs|publisher=}}
On December 5, 1992, Watson was sworn in as chief of police at Austin, Texas.{{cite web|url=http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1992_1097781|title=It's official: Watson takes over in Austin|publisher=}} She would resign in 1997 after a tenure racked with turmoil, police shortages, and other controversies.{{cite web|url=http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:527308|title=Naked City|publisher=}}
References
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