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'Miss Pat' Became 1st Black Woman On Tampa Police Force

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By NICOLA M. WHITE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 14, 2008

TAMPA - She was the first black woman to walk the beat as a city cop. But to legions of kids in East Tampa, Patricia Pierce Coleman wasn't just a police officer.

She was "Miss Pat" and "Mama P," a mother figure who encouraged them to stay in school, keep their noses clean and praise the Lord.

Coleman died Wednesday from cancer. She was 75.

Friends and family members remember Coleman as a woman who commanded respect but spoke gently, someone who broke barriers but didn't brag. The children she inspired while working in Tampa's public housing complexes in the 1970s and '80s recall a woman who nudged them to challenge themselves, drilling them with fake interview questions before they went out job hunting.

"It wouldn't be anything for her to load us in her car, take us to her home or take us to church with her," said Ida Walker, who was a teenager in the Robles Park public housing complex in the 1970s when she first met Coleman.

Coleman made history in 1968 when she was sworn in as the Tampa Police Department's first black female officer. She had already worked for three years in the booking department, taking fingerprints and shooting police mug shots.

She rose to the rank of detective and in 1975 became a civilian officer for the department, taking charge of after-school programs and community relations at two Tampa housing projects, Ponce del Leon Courts and Robles Park Village.

Sheila Parker was 16 and living in Robles Park when she had a baby. Coleman never looked down on her or made her feel bad. She did do one thing, though: force her to finish high school.

"I just could have been a bad child," said Parker, 48, who went on to graduate from college and eventually get her master's degree. "I always remembered her and I didn't want her to think bad of me."

Coleman's mothering instincts came naturally. She was one of 12 children, four of whom died while they were infants, her brother Dale Bell said. She was born in Palmetto and the family moved to Tampa in the 1940s, becoming one of the first families to move into the College Hill public housing complex.

When their mother had a brain tumor, Coleman left college in South Carolina and headed back to Tampa to take care of the kids in their new home in Ybor City.

Coleman worked as a nurse's assistant, got married and had two children. But she thirsted for more education. She wanted to complete her nursing degree, but in 1959, Tampa's schools did not accept blacks, according to a 1988 interview she gave The Tampa Tribune. She moved to Tallahassee and enrolled in Florida A&M University.

"It didn't make me angry, but it did make me tougher and more determined to accomplish something," she said in the interview.

She worked as a nurse only briefly before finding a job in the police booking office back in Tampa. It was there that a lieutenant approached her.

"He asked me if I would consider becoming the first black female officer. I took a deep breath and asked if he was kidding," she said at the time.

She joined the police department, handling mostly juvenile crimes and child abuse. She didn't worry about getting hurt on the streets; she worried about her own weapon, she said.

"I was afraid of guns," she told the Tribune.

She inspired at least one woman to join the force.

Tina Wright joined the police department in 1980. She retired in March as assistant police chief.

"It was Ms. Coleman who opened the doors for women like me," Wright said.

Coleman is survived by her husband, David; her daughter, Anita Jordan; her son, Tony Bell; and siblings Dale Bell, Sharon Green and Ann Ruth Stubblefield.

A funeral is planned for 11 a.m. Friday at the College Hill Church of God in Christ, 6414 N. 30th St. A viewing will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the church.

Reporter Nicola M. White can be reached at (813) 259-7616 or nwhite1@tampatrib.com.

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