Costa Mesa’s new lieutenant is also police department’s highest-ranking woman

The Costa Mesa Police Department has promoted a woman to lieutenant, making her the highest-ranking female in the department’s history.

During a ceremony at City Hall on Wednesday morning, Joyce LaPointe stood between two male co-workers who also were being promoted as she recited an oath after her partner pinned a new badge on her uniform.

Though she has achieved something no other woman at the department has, LaPointe views her milestone as a matter of timing.

“There weren’t a lot of women ahead of me,” she said.

LaPointe joined the Costa Mesa Police Department in 1997 after a stint as an athletic trainer and a security guard at Costa Mesa High School. Before that, she earned her bachelor of arts degree in kinesiology from Vanguard University, which she attended on a scholarship for softball and basketball.

“When I got here, I was treated just like every other recruit was,” LaPointe said about her start in policing.

Through her assignments in field training, on bike patrol, in the traffic division and as a flight officer in the department’s helicopter program, LaPointe’s tenacity and leadership stood out, said Chief Rob Sharpnack, who has been in the department more than 20 years.

“She builds cohesion, she brings people together to — I think — deal with problems effectively,” Sharpnack said.

Although the department has a relatively small number of female officers — 14 out of more than 100 — Sharpnack said he expects more of them will follow LaPointe into the upper ranks.

Sgt. Stephanie Selinske, who worked with LaPointe as one of Costa Mesa’s first female DUI enforcement officers, said the two avoid labeling themselves as “trail blazers” for their gender.

“We hate ‘blaze the trail’ because I think everyone here, female or male, they’re such hard workers and we all come in with the same goal, and that’s why we all wear the same uniform,” Selinske said. “I think that we just look at each other as who’s the hardest-working individual and that’s who you want to emulate and follow.”

LaPointe and Selinske agreed that the uniform they wear alongside their male counterparts forms a bond that transcends any differences.

“For her and I both, that’s how we like to be viewed, that I’m a hard worker and I wear the same uniform as my male partners, and we want to be looked at as equals,” Selinske said.