San Diego recently gave a nod to its women in blue. The San Diego Police Foundation (SDPF) honored some of the leading ladies of law enforcement at a luncheon March 9 at Donovan’s Circle of 5ths restaurant in the Gaslamp. Featured were San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, former NYPD officer and San Diego first lady Rana Sampson and San Diego Police Department (SDPD) Assistant Chief of Police Shelley Zimmerman. “The honorees exemplify the best and brightest in law enforcement,” said Sara Wilensky Napoli, CEO of the SDPF, a nonprofit fundraising organization for the police department that provides needed financial support to supplement discretionary needs. “Their mission is to respond to emergencies and make San Diego safer,” she said. “Our mission is to raise awareness of the critical role of providing funding to help SDPD reach its mission.” Roughly 15 percent, or 267, of the SDPD’s 1,800 officers are female. Though in recent years women have been making great gains in law enforcement — what has historically been seen as a non-traditional occupation — all are trailblazers in their own way. “We stand on the shoulders of so many [women],” said Dumanis, a former superior court judge and San Diego’s first female district attorney. Dumanis said there were six women working in the District Attorney’s Office when she first began in the 1970s. Now, she said, about half of the deputy district attorneys are female, as is the chief of the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation, Paula Robinson. Dumanis has been instrumental in passing Jessica’s Law, tightening restrictions on sex offenders, as well as helping to establish a domestic violence court. Also honored at the event was Sampson, former NYPD officer and wife of San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. After working some of the toughest beats in New York, Sampson went on to create an extensive body of research on policing strategies, authoring numerous publications for the U.S. Department of Justice, and helping to found the Center for Problem Oriented Policing. It was her husband, then-police chief Jerry Sanders, who started the San Diego Police Foundation in 1998 to provide a funding source for un-met needs of the department. “Lots of cops in this city do great things,” said Sampson. “SDPF helps to keep our department great.” The third honoree was Zimmerman, who has been on the force for 28 years and worked a variety of assignments throughout the department. She said she still loves coming to work everyday and appreciates the variety of situations and people an officer deals with daily. “Policing is the greatest show on earth and we have front row seats,” said Zimmerman. “It’s the only job where you can use every bit of knowledge you’ve ever learned.” “Absolutely this is a people job. It takes a very long time to build that trust in the community and you can lose that trust in one second,” she said. The SDPF raises funds for unbudgeted needs of the department, including personnel, patrol cars or standard officer equipment. According to SDPF chairman Darin Anderson, about 98 percent of the department’s city budget goes to paying personnel costs and for basic equipment, leaving only about 2 percent for non-standard equipment and enhancement programs.   “Someone always wants to see how to do the greatest good,” said Wilensky Napoli. “With this organization we are literally touching every person that lives here in San Diego.” For more information, visit www.sd policefoundation.org or call (858) 453-5060.