One of the criticisms of women who want to enter policing is that they lack the skills to perform as well as males.
Women’s personality attributes are appreciated in the way they handle themselves in the field. As women become a viable force in police departments, my direct experience indicates that the community relates better to those departments and rates them higher on job performance, trustworthiness, and fairness. Moreover, there is evidence that women have a calming effect on male partners in high-stress and dangerous assignments, resulting in fewer public and police encounters that end badly.
Female officers are less likely to use force, use excessive force, or be named in a lawsuit than male officers. And even though studies show that subjects use the same amount of force against female officers as against male officers, in some cases more force, female officers are more successful in defusing violent or aggressive behaviour.
In early 1974 my former employer actively recruited the entry of women into policing. Before that time, their police work was confined to the office and cases involving child and female victims – a far cry from the 1890s, when women were employed as matrons and jailers to deal with female offenders or to be part of an escort when female prisoners were moved from one place to another.
By the time my youngest daughter joined, the tongue-in-cheek talking was gone, and the excessive male-generated shootings, police vehicle crashes, and sexual harassment incidents had decreased. Like her female colleagues, she too possesses exceptional physical and emotional strength, as they are biologically equipped to handle the rotating and all-night work shifts. The comparison between women’s and men’s performance evaluations leaned decidedly in favour of women.
Progressively, we must urge the transition from the recruitment of warriors to the hiring of guardians and from the militarization of policing to demilitarization and building trust in high-crime neighbourhoods. The influx of women into policing and replacing men of the old school with women (and men) educated in the social sciences and humanities. The need for real systemic change cannot be ignored; diversity is more essential than ever at this time.
William Perry
Victoria
