Police Women of Broward County

TLC’s Police Women of Broward County has won cheers and jeers from critics and viewers alike. The show is centered on the lives and work of a group of female Broward County, Florida police officers, but some felt the show spent a little too much time on stereotypes and not enough time presenting a realistic picture of police work.

Police work can be dangerous.

Police Women of Broward County follows the lives of four female deputies working for the Broward County Sheriff Office (BSO). The show is part Cops (in fact, Broward County was the place where Cops originally launched), giving viewers ride-along access to patrol, surveillance, investigations and busts, but it also shows the personal lives of the four offices involved. Specifically, it addresses how they deal with the dangers of their jobs while managing their family lives.

The Broward County Sheriff Office is one of the country’s largest, and they patrol an area that is home to over 2 million people. Broward County is located in southern Florida and reaches from the coast to the Everglades. The women featured on the show work in different areas of law enforcement.

The women featured on the show are:

A single mother of three sons, Julie Bower is a detective with BSO. She currently works on sex crimes and missing person cases. She is known for her interview skills with victims of highly personal, sensitive crimes and for her ability to crack cases. Before working sex crimes and missing persons, Bower was the only woman on the BSO Diving Rescue team. She has also been involved in the training of other officers and BSO’s youth outreach mentoring program. Bower has been with BSO for 13 years.

Police work is a family affair for Cooper. Both her husband and her twin sister are BSO officers. Her ultimate goal is to become a crime scene investigator, but for now, Cooper works as a road patrol office. She responds to 911 calls, so the crimes she encounters vary greatly. She works the overnight shift alone, which is a constant source of conflict between Cooper and her husband.

Murillo works the Strategic Enforcement Unit for BSO and does most of her work in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Broward County. Her job entails several different tasks, from surveillance operations to undercover work and stings. She is known for convincing drug users to give up their dealers. Murillo works hard to make it known that being a woman has nothing to do with her ability to do her job.

At age 26, Penoyer is one of the youngest officers in BSO. She does a lot of the same work as Murillo - surveillance, undercover and "sweeps" in which her team attempts to make several arrests for different kinds of criminal behavior in one day. Penoyer is known as one of the toughest in her anti-crime unit and she is the one whose job it is to chase a suspect when they run. Penoyer is a single mother of an eight year old son and is working toward a degree in public administration.

Although billed as a showcase of tough female law enforcement officers, not everyone saw the program that way and it became a lightening rod for criticism. One reviewer called the show "thinly veiled S&M" while another balked at the police resources being used to create TV-friendly busts. Yet another critic questioned how officers who work undercover can show their faces on a reality program and go back to their jobs safely.

Fans of the show can learn more about the cops involved and play show themed games on the show home page on the TLC website.

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