Lieutenant Colonel Cynthia Transue, deputy commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, was escorted out of her office last Friday. Transue was the highest ranking woman official in the agency, and the first woman to act as deputy commissioner. She gave up her badge, gun and ID card, and her picture has been removed from stations statewide, reports the Associated Press. State police officials have declined to comment on her employment status, but Major Robert Einsel has been appointed as her temporary replacement.
The Philadelphia Daily News reports that Transue filed a complaint last year, in which she accused the agency’s disciplinary officer, Captain Barry Titler, of perjury. Many suspect that Transue’s subsequent investigation and removal came as reprisal for reporting Titler. Penny Harrington, founder and board member of the National Center for Women and Policing, told the Philadelphia Daily News that “Because she did break the code of silence and reported inappropriate behavior, there’s a high likelihood she was targeted.”
President of the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association, Bruce Edwards, told the Philadelphia Daily News he had “gotten a lot of calls already from women on this job. They are not happy and they want some questions answered.”
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