Ahead of Her Time: Female Motorcycle Cop Retiring After 25 years

The first woman motorcycle cop in the history of Jersey City - if not the state - is retiring after 25 years of protecting residents and paving the way for the women who would follow in her tire tracks.

"I enjoyed it very much - the freedom of it, being out in the air and the wind, a little closer to the people," said Police Officer Mary Scheider, who will have a retirement party tonight and officially hang up her helmet on Wednesday.

Scheider, the first and still the only woman to serve on the Jersey City Motorcycle Squad, has won numerous departmental citations.

In 1987, she was a six-year veteran - and one of just a handful of women on the force - when she was asked to give the motorcycle squad a try.

"I enjoy the job," Scheider said. "I enjoy interacting with people and I enjoy writing summonses for the people who put others in danger, who think they are the only person on the road. I never really thought of myself as a groundbreaker."

She said there were some who gave her a hard time when she first became a police officer, and it didn't get easier when she became a motorcycle cop. She said there still are some in the department who don't think it's a job for a woman.

"I hope that I've made it a little easier for the women who are on the job now," Scheider said. "I tried to be professional in whatever I did. I tried to treat everyone as I would have like to be treated.

Police Chief Robert Troy, who attended the police academy with Scheider, said she stood out not just as one of the few women on the force, but also for always giving it her all.

"She was one of the first, and she rose to that occasion," Troy said. "She should be very proud of an excellent career. I imagine that females in the department had challenges that men didn't have, but they are as good if not better than many of the guys they work with."

Friends, family and fellow officers - including her husband, retired Police Lt. Tom Scheider - will throw her a retirement party tonight at Braczicki's Tavern on Spruce Street in Jersey City.