The department is a part of a growing initiative to get more women on the force. The pledge is called 30 by 30, recruiting more women to become cops by 2030.
Milford Police Department is striving to boost the number of women officers within their ranks. It's a part of an 30 by 30 initiative.
The sight of more women officers is becoming more prevalent at Milford's police department.
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"We like to lead the state, especially make sure that we are diverse and with all the races, and all genders," said Milford officer Marilisa Anania, first class patrolman with the department. "I'm very proud to say that I work for Milford PD and that we are doing that."
The growing initiative is spreading around the country and a few other departments in Connecticut are joining the pledge including Hartford, Yale University Police Department and Meriden.
Officer Anania and Paige Bodnar work as partners within the crime prevention unit and tell NBC Connecticut they joined for different reasons.
"I always looked up to them ever since 9/11, I like the fact that they were heroes and they were there to help people," said Anania.
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"I like the investigative part of everything and kind of getting to the bottom of what's going on," said Bodnar.
The common dominator among all Milford officers is lending a helping hand within the areas they serve, including Patricia Nelson who just became an officer about a year ago.
"I've always been fascinated with helping people and investigating crimes and helping people better themselves," said Nelson.
Twenty percent of Milford police officers are women and Milford is looking to surpass the 30% goal before 2030. They tell us they're on track to reach that benchmark.
"We’re going to reach that organically and I'm inspired by the women that I work with," said Anania.
"It's a great number because you don't often hear that back in the day, you didn't hear that there was many police officers that were female, you were always thinking it was a male-dominated field," said Bodnar.
