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Yvonne Olivier Bechet: She changed the face of the NOPD [1]

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Date: 2024-05-29  

She was a high school cheerleader. She was a wife, mother and seamstress who made Mardi Gras costumes for her four children and extended family. She worked on Apollo rockets at NASA.

As if those accomplishments were not enough, Yvonne Olivier Bechet became the highest-ranked woman in the New Orleans Police Department in 1985 when she was named deputy superintendent.

Bechet joined the department in 1968 after her husband Ronald, a policeman, told her the department wanted to hire female officers.

“I immediately jumped on it,” the 83-year-old Bechet said as part of “The Eyes Have Seen” project. “I was working for NASA … I found this more exciting, so I took the exam and was accepted at the Police Academy.”

Bechet graduated with five other women; one of two Black women. Central Lockup was her first assignment.

“At my second assignment, only one person – the sergeant – showed up for roll call,” she said. “The rest refused to work with me” until the superintendent said their actions would not be tolerated.

In addition to being an undercover narcotics agent during her 22-year career, Bechet said her most rewarding position was as a supervisor in the Community Relations Division. It focused on violence prevention and community policing in the 1970s.

“We worked with children and young adults. We did various things for the elderly,” she said. “I liked it because we were able to make a difference.”

National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial, a former New Orleans mayor, described Bechet as a trailblazer who “overcame racism and sexism to become a respected leader within the department.”

Bechet, who died in 2020 at 86, said “it was really difficult to convince them that I was a leader, especially the Caucasian men.” However, “after a while, they’d say I was the best commander they ever had.”

For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.

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[1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/05/29/bitd-yvonne-olivier-bechet-new-orleans-police/

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