One of the byproducts of the Black Lives Matter movement to curtail police brutality in this country is a shortage of candidates for openings on police departments both large and small. The recent scrutiny of policing and the loud calls for police reform has resulted in far fewer suburban white dudes lining up for what once was considered among the most respected and cherished professions: law enforcement.
I can suppose that since it’s becoming increasingly difficult for cops to just “kick ass and take names” without consequence, the luster, the appeal of the job has worn off for some. Being able to brutalize folks on a whim was a large reason some guys were attracted to the job in spite of their protestations otherwise. However, with that behavior becoming increasingly difficult to get away with, some evidently feel the job is not worth having. But they are wrong. Being a police officer is still a job worth having, provided one wants to do the job right.
Over a decade ago the police chief of Providence, RI had an epiphany: The few female officers he had were out-performing male officers by a number of measures, so he decided to purposely began to recruit females to fill the ranks of the department, and over the ensuing decade his hunch paid off: His city saw a reduction in police violence towards civilians and also a reduction in violence in the city overall.
Some violence experts point towards testosterone as the culprit. Males can have an excess of it, which comes into play in confrontational situations; they can become overly pumped-up and aggressive. Females lack of this chemical renders them more calm and fit to do the stressful job of policing. For one, they’re not as prone to be trigger-happy or to act aggressively towards suspects.
While I’m not privy to the recruiting efforts of the Cleveland Division of Police I suspect they haven’t changed much over the years, meaning they still are geared to attract white dudes from the suburbs. That needs to change.
A concerted effort to attract women — and particularly women of color — to the Cleveland Division of Police should be undertaken with all due haste. I know that recruiting efforts are presently underway here in Cleveland, but how well such efforts are focused on attracting females is questionable. Indeed, it’s questionable if the recruiters have been trained to attempt to focus on female recruits.
The Cleveland Division of Police probably needs to bring in outside help in the form of consultants that could teach the recruiters how to focus on attracting more females. However, I’m not holding my breath for that to happen any time soon.
2 Responses to “MANSFIELD: Recruiting Female Cops”
Charles Mintz
This is a great insight. You don’t have to get into hormones or theories to understand that adding more women will change the culture for the better. When we look at lack of diversity in professions, we sometimes miss that women are getting left out as well. I have a particular concern about engineering where 6% of students are African American. But women, who saw their share grow from almost nothing to around 25% by the eighties, have been stuck there. More woman cops. An idea that cannot miss.
TL Champion
Another awesome article from Mansfield!!!