When Bernadette Paul graduated from North Bergen High School in 1984, she really didn’t have an idea for a career choice.
“I got a job at K-Mart,” she said. “I thought a little bit about becoming a police officer, but at the time, it really wasn’t doable.”
That’s because there were no women on the North Bergen police force. Not a single one.
“I think there were some that took the police test, but they all failed the physical,” said the former Bernadette Paul, who married Keith Gonyou and took his name with a hyphen seven years ago. “It really wasn’t a realistic goal.”
While working at the K-Mart warehouse, Paul-Gonyou became friendly with a few police officers.
“They told me that the police department was looking for a civilian dispatcher,” Paul-Gonyou said. “That was all I needed to know. I’ve been here ever since.”
After serving as a civilian dispatcher for three years, some of the officers encouraged Paul-Gonyou to take the police test and become an officer. That was in 1989. North Bergen still had not had a female police officer. “I figured that I had nothing to lose,” Paul-Gonyou said. “Debbie Crimmins [currently a North Bergen detective] took the test with me.”
A year later, Bernadette Paul became the first woman to ever serve as a North Bergen police officer.
Last week, Paul-Gonyou earned another distinction, becoming the first female superior officer in the department, when she was among six officers that were promoted to the rank of sergeant.
Sgt. Paul-Gonyou received her stripes in a ceremony at Town Hall, presided over by Mayor Nicholas Sacco, Public Safety Director Theresa Ferriero and Police Chief Angelo Busacco. Fellow new sergeants Scott Sullivan, Carmine Pellecchio, Robert Dowd, James Lieto and Gerald Sanzari joined Paul-Gonyou at the swearing-in ceremony.
Every angle
It capped a brilliant 11-year career, where Paul-Gonyou accomplished practically every angle of police work. She started out walking the beat just like every rookie cop, and worked her way to stints with the patrol vehicle and then the street crime unit.
Soon after, Paul-Gonyou was part of the major prostitution sting, posing undercover as a hooker, that led to 75 arrests in one weekend, earning several commendations.
In 1994, Paul-Gonyou was assigned as the communications coordinator, back in the dispatch room, back to her roots. Only this time, she was asked to head the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) program, when the department installed the system for the first time.
“There was a time when everything was everything was written down and then punched into simplex cards,” Paul-Gonyou said. “Then, everything went computer. All 911 calls were able to go directly into the CAD. It would be able to tell you what section of town the call came from and a unit was assigned immediately. It sped up the whole process.”
Paul-Gonyou went to specialized training sessions in Boston to learn the CAD system, to then subsequently train the entire department. Her responsibilities included organizing the reports that had to be sent to the National Crime Information Center, the FBI and the state police.
It also enabled the department to handle and respond to more calls, which now average 300 per day and almost 70,000 annually. Paul-Gonyou has to review each call, which can be a tedious and trying, but still has to be done. “Sometimes, the reports have to be double checked to make sure everything is done correctly,” Paul-Gonyou said. “And I’m on call 24 hours a day, just in case the computer goes down. I get those calls at 3 a.m., but I have to come in.”
She also has to juggle the role of being a mother to daughter Brianna, age 3.
“It’s hard, having a full-time job and being a mom,” said Paul-Gonyou, whose husband is a lieutenant in the North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue. “When I first took the sergeant’s test, I didn’t have a husband and didn’t have a daughter. Now, it was hard to take the time to study for the test at home.”
Paul-Gonyou first took the test four years ago and placed among the top 10.
Waiting
Unfortunately, a lawsuit by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) prohibited the North Bergen police department from hiring new officers and making promotions. So Paul-Gonyou had to patiently wait for her next opportunity, which came last year.
And last week, she made history when she was promoted to sergeant.
“It’s quite a milestone for our department,” Busacco said. “It was a long time coming. She was our first hired 11 years ago and now she’s our first to become a superior officer. Without question, any modern police department wants to be representative of the community it serves. We’ve become a diversified department and it follows logical conclusions that we promote a female officer.”
Added Busacco, “Bernie came to us and like every other officer, started at the bottom and worked her way up. She’s definitely paid her dues and worked hard to get where she is. She’s being rewarded for her hard work.” Paul-Gonyou was asked if she was getting accustomed to the new title.
“I wrote it down a few times,” Paul-Gonyou said. “I’m trying to get used to it. I’m not a police officer anymore. I’m a sergeant. I had to think about it, because it’s only been four days. But it has a nice ring to it. I’m very proud of what I’ve accomplished. Looking back, I never thought it was possible.”
But Sgt. Bernadette Paul-Gonyou is living proof that anything is possible. Becoming the first female superior officer is definitely her reward.