Two women promoted to historic roles in Linn County public safety departments

CEDAR RAPIDS — Two women have made public safety history in Linn County.

At the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, Heather O’Brien was promoted and became the first female lieutenant the office has had.

And at the Cedar Rapids Fire Department, Cheme’ Fairlie became the department’s first female battalion chief.

Both departments made announcements on social media congratulating the women and celebrating their promotions.

Lt. Heather O’Brien

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O’Brien’s promotion included a relocation to the finance division of the Sheriff’s Office, which she will oversee. Previously, she was a detective and sergeant in the criminal division.

“It’s a relatively new position. It’s still a little fluid as far as what I will or won’t be doing. So, we’re going to learn as we go, but I’m going to be involved with the finance department,” O’Brien said. “I’ve known since I started working here that I wanted to be promoted. I’m internally motivated to move up and to challenge myself.”

O’Brien didn’t always want to work in law enforcement. When she was younger, she earned an undergraduate degree in psychology and worked for a few years at the Abbe Center for Community Mental Health. While she says the job was a valuable experience, she ultimately decided it wasn’t what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

She worked in banking for several years and got her master’s degree in business before switching career fields again and becoming a deputy at the Linn County Correctional Center.

O’Brien said while she was working in banking she was introduced to a woman who worked as a postal service inspector for the United States Postal Service. They got talking about the scams and other criminal activity that the inspector had to watch for through the mail, and O’Brien found the discussion of the law enforcement side of that work fascinating. That was when she first started thinking about working in law enforcement herself.

“I ended up getting hired here, and I really enjoy working for the Sheriff’s Office. I have no intent to go anywhere else,” O’Brien said. “I think it’s an honor to be the first female lieutenant in the office.”

There are only nine sworn law enforcement officers in the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, so O’Brien hasn’t gotten to work with other women much in her law enforcement career, but she said she doesn’t feel like she’s treated differently when she’s the only woman in the room.

“I feel that the employees, the deputies and the command staff, have always been supportive. I’ve never felt like I’ve been held down or pushed back in any way, which has been really great,” O’Brien said. “I know that my command staff has my back, so it makes it very easy to work hard for people that appreciate what you do.”

Battalion Chief Cheme’ Fairlie

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Fairlie has been subbing in as a battalion chief when needed for the last six years, but her official position was as an engine captain. Now, as an official battalion chief, she said she’s excited for the opportunity and hopes she can inspire young girls in the community to see firefighting as a potential career.

Fairlie was exposed to the fire service as a child by her aunt and uncle who were both firefighters, and inspired her to want to become one herself.

“It was something I’ve wanted to do since I was really little. I just continued that path,” Fairlie said. “My family has always been supportive of whatever I do. My parents’ philosophy was, you can be anything you want to be. You just have to put in the work to do it.”

She started as a volunteer firefighter in Illinois, where she grew up and went to high school. Then she went to Oklahoma to get a bachelor’s degree in fire protection and engineering from Oklahoma State. Her first job out of college was at an industrial fire department, but she always knew she wanted to work for a municipality.

The Cedar Rapids Fire Department was her next step, and she said it’s where she intends to stay.

“I’m going to make my career out of Cedar Rapids. Right now, I’m just focusing on getting my feet under me and making sure that I understand the role,” Fairlie said. “For 20 years, I was in the tactical, hands-on aspect of firefighting. As a battalion chief, you're more in the strategic role, and I want to just become very competent in this role.”

Since starting at Cedar Rapids, Fairlie has become a certified paramedic and gotten a master's degree in emergency management.

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Fairlie doesn’t share a shift with any of the other six women who are full-time firefighters with the CRFD — there’s also one female sworn fire investigator — but said she has worked with them occasionally when shift changes line up.

Fairlie said she hasn’t gotten much push back as a woman in firefighting, and most times, when she’s in her gear, people don’t even notice.

“When you’re in your gear,” she said, “you’re just a firefighter.”

Women in public safety

Women had a difficult time breaking into the public safety field in Iowa, with multiple lawsuits filed over the years for discrimination. In Linn County, former Marion fire chief Deb Krebill was the second woman in Iowa to become a career fire chief, after Lynn Washburn-Livingston, who was a fire chief in Davenport.

Krebill started with the Marion Fire Department in 1991 and became chief in 2014. She retired last year after more than 30 years with the department.

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Krebill said she was lucky in Marion and she always felt supported by her male colleagues, but that she had talked with many women working in public safety who were not treated well.

“I heard horrible stories, but I didn’t experience that … I know that there were doubters, of course, and they never spoke out, but you know that they’re there,” Krebill said. “The hardest part was worrying that I couldn’t prove myself to be worthy of a job that was mostly male dominated.”

Krebill said that in her experience, women tend to approach public safety differently than men, and with more compassion, and that having more women in leadership roles allows for a greater diversity of perspectives in firefighting and other public safety jobs.

“As a leader in public safety … I think it puts pressure on us because we feel we need to prove ourselves, more so than a male does. So, that makes it harder because you still don’t want to lose yourself,” Krebill said. “We need to be looked upon as individuals, not gender.”

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