Gender Diversity in Law Enforcement

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that North Carolina is one of the states taking advantage of a federal program to bring more highly skilled, highly educated and highly trained officers into local community policing programs; this is particularly appropriate for the attributes of female police officers. The author points out that the recruitment of women and their progress in achieving equal status has slowed, especially at the highest ranks. The paper states that the biggest problem is that, when a department is notified of a woman officer's pregnancy, she is removed from her position, and often no efforts are made to find her a light-duty position.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Overview
Women Officers Are Better Than Men
Community Policing in North Carolina
Internal Affairs
Women Law Enforcement Officers and Pregnancy
Fitness in General
But Can They Cut It?
"Power Test"
Summary
Recommendations
Appendix A: Women Who Work in the Criminal Justice System, 1995
Appendix B: Women Working in Adult Corrections
Appendix C: Women Working in Juvenile Corrections

From the Paper:

"The physical demands of police work are one of the arguments used against recruitment of female officers. In 1997, the Chief of the Hackensack, New Jersey, Police Department spoke out against hiring women, noting their physical size. He said, "I'm not a big supporter of a 100-pound woman trying to shove a 300-pound guy out of a bar. And in a small town like ours, when we have only one or two guys on the road, you need the extra beef out there" Kelly asked the Chief whether he could do it; the Chief refused to answer. Reluctantly, he said he would go along with hiring female officers if it meant he would get the $355,000 from the feds to hire five new officers."

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