More female police officers are needed
To the best of our knowledge, there has never been a young boy who has proclaimed, “I want to be a certified public accountant!” when asked what he wants to be when he grows up.
Not that there’s anything wrong with being a certified public accountant. They do good and necessary work. However, before aptitudes and interests become more settled, most boys fantasize about joining professions that are heavy on danger and excitement – they want to be firefighters, police officers or detectives.
They’re being increasingly joined by members of the opposite sex.
As Kathie Warco reported in last Sunday’s edition of the Observer-Reporter, more women are walking the beat in Washington County. They are represented on the police forces in, among other places, Mt. Pleasant, Hanover and Cecil townships. In smaller communities, they make up 21 percent of the police ranks, according to 2013 statistics provided by the Bureau of Justice. In the four years since, that number could well have increased.
Sure, they’re meeting all the physical demands that come with policing – Amanda Brewer, a full-time officer in Mt. Pleasant Township, told Warco she has “wrestled with guys three times my size” – but they also bring skills in areas where their more testosterone-heavy compatriots might be falling short.
First, women who have been victims of sexual assault often feel more comfortable describing their trauma to a female officer. The same goes for domestic violence incidents, where women are frequently victims. Female police officers have also been found to generally be better with children. Other studies have shown female officers are less likely to use their guns while on duty.
According to a study by the National Center for Women & Policing, “Research conducted in the United States and internationally clearly demonstrates that women officers rely on a style of policing that uses less physical force, (they) are better at defusing and de-escalating potentially violent confrontations with citizens, and are less likely to become involved in problems with the use of excessive force. Additionally, women officers often possess better communication skills than their male counterparts and are better able to facilitate the cooperation and trust required to implement a community policing model.”
It continued, “In an era of costly litigation, hiring and retaining more women in law enforcement is therefore likely to be an effective means of addressing the problems with excessive force and citizen complaints.”
Another plus: Studies have shown that the more female police officers there are within an agency, the number of sexual harassment and other forms of inappropriate behavior declined. Research suggests harassment is more prevalent in male-dominated, boys-will-be-boys workplaces.
Police agencies here and elsewhere should be making it a priority to recruit more female officers. This can be a challenge, as some departments reportedly still use fitness standards that emphasize hard physical stamina over communication skills. This needs to be rethought.