BELLEVILLE, Ill. — In 1994, one woman made history in Belleville, Illinois, as their police department’s first female officer.

The city of Belleville was 200 years old before hiring their first female officer, 30-year-old Kelly Paul. Paul was a former newspaper reporter who traded in her pen and pad for a badge and a gun.

“When I applied for Belleville, I didn’t look in terms of ‘I’d like to be the first female officer hired,'” Paul told FOX 2 in 1994. “I didn’t think of that; if I had, I probably wouldn’t have done it.”

Paul was not only the first female police officer but also the only officer who was not a white male at the time.

“How well I do will set the tone for any female officers that come behind me,” Paul said in 1994.

Paul Coleman, a city hall watcher called the move “a positive step,” FOX 2 reported in 1994.

“It’s gonna be tough, and a lot of ice that needs to be broken,” Coleman told FOX 2. “She has the right sort of temperament to do that.”

Paul’s road to achieving the position did run into roadblocks after passing three tests to prove her eligibility, Paul learned her ranking had been changed which moved her lower on the list of police candidates.

A federal inspection revealed the city’s minority hiring practices under a different city administration. When the city got a new mayor and police chief, Paul got another look.

“Current commissioners looked at the list and found that my score was the only one that had been tampered with,” Paul said. “They reinstated that list with me at number one.”