Hollywood star Angie Dickinson made a splash playing TV’s “Sgt. Pepper Anderson,” LAPD’s top undercover cop, on her show “Police Woman” from 1974-78. She was smart and sexy, a formidable foe to criminals and bad guys who crossed her path. Some say her portrayal kick started an influx of women police officers joining the ranks.
Chicago Police Sergeant Suzie Q. Kenny has been on the job going on 27 years. She’s a cop who loves animals. She’s also gorgeous.
Suzie Q w her classic VW Bug Louise
Suzie grew up in Tinley Park with two brothers and was volunteering with ESDA, Emergency Services Disaster Agency, so taking the police test seemed the logical next step for her.
She has several Honorable Mentions, Department Commendations, Lifesaving Awards, and has been recognized with the Chicago Leadership Award and tells me, “We ended up busting a burglary ring, guys breaking into garages in Area 5, Roseland, rough area, great coppers.”
Suzie Q and fish 2
Sue has a 20-year-old son, Jack, and lives in Mt. Greenwood with her two dogs: Princess the Shitzu and Loki, her certified therapy dog. She actively volunteers her free time with the Peer Support Program and utilizes Loki to help other officers during tragic events.
She wrote a book about Loki and owns a horse she rides regularly named Holster. Suzie Q is the Annie Oakley of the CPD. “I did about 20 years out on the street,” she says.
Do you miss it?
“I do.”
These days she works mostly at headquarters but has fond memories of starting out as a young cop back in the day.
Suzi Q with Holster
“Char Kielbasa was my partner, she’s Polish. We were working midnights, so we ended up getting a hot car with a guy in it, goin’ down Cicero Avenue. So we went to pull him over and he gets out and flees on foot, just takes off and she starts chasing him.
"Well, Char has this little Minnie Mouse voice, so she’s like ‘Mi Mi Mi!’ So Dispatch, they still give out to me how we blew out their ear drums on that foot chase! From her calling it in, she’s chasing him, chasing him, she finally corners him. I was in the car tryin’ to keep up. And of course everyone’s on the radio and they can’t understand her, between her running and screaming, and so we finally get him into the CTA parking lot at 59th and Cicero at midnight. So she’s on foot, and I’m in the car, and we roll up and she says ‘there he is!’”
Picture two female cops, out of breath, in the heat of the night, with the suspect hiding under a car, and they pretend they don’t know where he is.
Suzi Q Kenny
“She’s pointing and I can see him, we’re talking back and forth, we do the hand signals, one, two, three, and she goes to get him and he goes out the other side and we just tackle him, I’m there, so we get him, we handcuff him, we’re yelling, ‘in custody’, and the squad cars are all flying in the lot and her and I are jumping up and down, the bad guy in handcuffs, we’re hugging each other, and we turn around and there’s two male coppers just standing there watching us, leaning against their squad car, and they look at us like ‘where’s our hug?’”
“We got him, take him into the station, the whole nine yards, we’re so happy that we, two girls, caught the bad guy, just having a grand old time with it!”
Suzie Q Kenny and Charmane Kielbasa. Don’t mess with them!
Sgt.-Sue-Kenny
There were also days and nights that did not have such happy outcomings.
Suzie tells me a tragic story of a female friend who went through the academy with her, who shot and killed herself.
“They didn’t have anybody to come and talk to us, nobody came down, no peer members, no nothing. This was 26 years ago, it’s definitely better now. I’m the only dog team for the department, therapy dog, we try to help whenever we can.
"If I can’t make it to the incident I’ll make it to the roll call the next day. The average person might have one or two traumatic incidents in their lifetime, police officers might go through four hundred. I remember working a beat car and I was at three different shootings in one night.”
Despite all this Suzie Q always looks happy, with a twinkle in her eye, like she’s in on the joke. Angie Dickinson’s got nothin’ on her. Suzie's a darlin’ gal.
Suzie Q in Dominican Republic
