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Crime & Safety

A Family Tradition of Public Service

Eagan Police Sergeant Linda Myhre was Eagan's first female firefighter, and its second female police officer.

Growing up, Linda Scott Myhre remembers her father getting fire calls at their home.

She also remembers tying his shoelaces together as he napped on the couch, and then laughing as he stumbled on his way to the phone.

As soon as she turned 18, the feisty Myhre joined the Eagan Fire Department, becoming Eagan's first female volunteer firefighter - partly because of her father's example, and partly because she wanted to prove that she could.

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Then on March 1, 1980, she became Eagan's second female police officer, just a few months after Lori Tripp signed on as the first. Like Myhre, Tripp also still works for the Eagan Police Department.

A penchant for public service runs in the family. Myhre's father worked as an Eagan volunteer firefighter for 20 years, retiring in 1999. Her brother, Mike, is currently serving as the city's fire chief.

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Myhre became interested in law enforcement while employed at a Tom Thumb store in the Yankee Square Shopping Center. She enjoyed listening to the stories told by officers who frequented the store and, truth be told, became irritated with cops who were vocal about their opinion that women did not belong on the police force. 

Not only did she prove she could do that job, too, but she eventually supervised some of those men.

Other than a few naysayers, Myhre says she never encountered resistance from her fellow firefighters or from brother officers as she blazed the trail for other women. She remembers having more resistance from members of the public who demanded that they "get a real officer."

Myhre, who currently serves as a patrol sergeant, spent 11 years as a detective working in the crimes against people unit - which included investigating and apprehending child abusers, a job she found especially rewarding. 

She also heads up the Explorer Program for youth interested in finding out more about a career in law enforcement, but these days her main concern is for kids who get in trouble. 

Myhre is in the process of developing a program, tentatively titled "About Face," that will help kids on the fringes of the law turn their lives around. She is already taking an interest in several such youth, visiting them at home and encouraging them to make better decisions. 

Myrhre says she would encourage any young woman interested in a public service career, whether as a cop or a firefighter, to go for it, saying it is a good career and no two days are alike. 

Today, Fire Chief Scott says his department has a dozen female firefighters. Myhre proudly reports there are 10 women working as Eagan police officers including two sergeants and three detectives.

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