As a young child, Lt. Linda Black of the Evanston Police Department rode around with her grandfather in his squad car as he patrolled the streets of a small Ohio town.

These early experiences with her grandfather, the sheriff of Canal Winchester, Ohio, inspired Black’s long career as a police officer.

After 21 years of service with EPD, Black, the department’s first female lieutenant — the highest rank a woman has held in the department — is leaving to become the new police chief of Delaware, Ohio.

It’s a welcome homecoming for Black, whose parents and four sisters live in the area. She will begin her new job Nov. 16 and, as chief, will supervise 31 officers and several civilian employees. She said she is looking forward to working in Delaware, which with a population 27,000 is less than half the size of Evanston.

Black grew up in Ostrander and Sunbury, Ohio, but could not find a police post in the state because she failed to meet the state’s height requirement of 5 feet 8 inches. Black, at 5 feet 3 inches, began working as an EPD officer in 1972.

Black said at the beginning EPD considered her a “police woman” rather than a police officer, meaning she received less pay and had different duties than an officer. During police training, Black was told she would not have to perform the job’s physical aspects.

Unlike some other female officers in the department, Black tried to spend as much time on the streets as she could. Still, the chief used to send reinforcements to make sure she was able handle the situation, Black said.

Her first post was as a youth officer, a job she said she found very rewarding. One young man she helped went on to graduate from a four-year college and now visits her every month.

His visits remind her why she became a police officer, Black said. When people come back to thank her, she said, it keeps her going.

In 1976 Black left EPD to spend more time with her family. Eight years later, she returned to find changes in the department. This time around, female officers received the same police training as men and went straight to patrol. The “police women” now were being seen as officers.

But the gender-related difficulties Black faced were not limited to training. She said it is sometimes hard to make people understand that although women may approach situations differently than male officers, it does not mean they are less effective.

For example, a 2000 Christopher Commission study showed that female police officers rely more on verbal skills and less on physical force when handling altercations.

A 1998 study by the International Journal of Police Science and Management showed male officers used coercive tactics, such as controlling statements, threats and physical force, more often than female police officers.

Throughout her career, Black said, she has been “trying to clear the path for other women.” According to the National Institute of Justice, only 14.3 percent of sworn law enforcement officers today are women.

Debbie Hakiman, a civilian who fields 911 calls for EPD, said she has known Black for 11 years and considers her a role model. Black is not one to back down and she motivates others to do the same, Hakiman said.

Hakiman said Black encouraged her to attend college and get her degree. She plans to begin studying part-time in January at National-Louis University so she can continue working at EPD.

As a single mother, Black has had to juggle family concerns along with her job. She said it was hard to fit her roles as both a mother and a police officer into her schedule.

Previously married, Black has two adult daughters and a 19-year-old son. When she had to work the midnight shift, she would take her third-grade son to sleep over at his sister’s dorm at Loyola University.

Black said being a parent makes some aspects of her job hard, like calling parents to inform them that their child has been in a serious car accident. Those experiences, she said, “stick with you the rest of your life.”

But she said the rewards balance out the challenges. For instance, Black once saved the life of a disabled man. About five years ago, EPD officers were the first to arrive at the scene of the fire and had to enter the burning building to evacuate residents.

“I’ve been in a fire before but not like that,” Black said.

Although the smoke was heavy and thick, Black began helping people escape from the building. She saw a disabled man struggling to walk down the staircase and stopped to assist him.

Black said she was focused on the fire, and that it did not dawn on her until later that she had just saved someone’s life.