As a police officer and a lawyer, Ida Lippman influenced criminal justice both in America and in Korea, where she helped organize the women’s division of the Seoul police force. Lippman began her law enforcement career at the New York State Reformatory for Women in Bedford Hills, New York, eventually helping to found a halfway house in Inwood, New York for young girls on parole from the State Reformatory. During WWI, she worked with the Red Cross in Washington, DC before going to Tours, France in 1918 to serve in the US Army’s Quartermaster Corps. She was then recruited by the Detroit Police Department to help create a women’s division, and spent seven years overseeing patrols and court work involving juveniles and women. Meanwhile, she studied law at the University of Detroit and was admitted to the bar in 1927. She opened her own practice in 1930, specializing in civil law and women’s rights. In 1946 she was the only woman in a group of eight police officers sent to Korea for executive police positions, and helped create the Seoul PD’s women’s division, earning effusive praise from General Douglas McArthur for her work. She later became president of the Women’s Overseas Service League and worked with a number of local professional and women’s organizations in Detroit.