 From May to October 1938 a murder case consumed his time - that of Mathias H. Warren, father of Earl Warren who was soon to be attorney general and then governor of California, and in time, Chief Justice of the United States.In June 1939 Powers supported an initiative to get women on the police force if they were college educated and paid well.On July 3, 1941, the Bakersfield Police Department accepted its first female officer with the hiring of Mary Holman Dodge.