Women And Minorities In Law Enforcement

Women and Minorities in Law Enforcement

Working to end discrimination in this country has been a long and hard fought battle. In the early 1950's federal laws began to offer some help to those who had been persecuted against for so many years. During the Nixon Administration the federal government began to push employers to make a "good faith effort" to employ women and minorities and to track their progress. These were known as affirmative action programs. Some minorities contend that discrimination in the workplace is as still alive today as it ever has been; it is just better disguised. Opponents of affirmative action argue that it is reverse discrimination and that such laws only help to "stir the flames of racial hatred" (http://www.crf-usa.org/brown50th/adarand_affirmative_action.htm).

A Little History behind Women in Law Enforcement

For women in law enforcement, it has been a long hard track to get where they are today and, though improvement are still being made today, there is still much to be done to increase the number of female police officers.

The percentage of women in law enforcement is hovering under 15 percent and it is not increasing. (NCWP) Research and history have disproved the notion that women are not suited for law enforcement. Studies show that the female police officer traditionally employs a style of conflict resolution that puts communication before physical confrontation - a notable finding as law enforcement agencies come under fire for excessive force. Female officers are also particularly effective in situations involving other women, being able to help victims of sexual assault or child molestation because they may be more apt to open up to the sensitivity of a female officer.

Though 15 percent may seem like a low number for 2006, it is clearly higher today than a hundred and fifty years past:

* In 1845, New York officials hired two women to work as matrons in the city's two jails after the American Female Moral Reform Society campaigned for the matron positions to be created. They hoped the police would hire matrons for the police stations as well; however the police department itself blocked this from happening.

* Mary Owens received the rank of policeman from the Chicago Police Department in 1893. She was a widow whose husband had been an officer for the department. Occasionally, a department would employ widows as a type of death benefit for their husbands. Early on, police departments seldom offered death benefits and hiring widows was a way of compensating them. Mary Owens worked for thirty years for the department assisting on cases involving women and children, and she was the first woman to receive arrest powers.

* In 1905, Lola Baldwin was given police powers and put in charge of a group of social workers in order to aid the Portland, Oregon Police Department during the Lewis and Clark Exposition. She was the first woman to work as a sworn police officer in the United States. City leaders felt that some measures had to be taken to protect the "moral safety" of the young woman of Portland. Along with this same direction, in 1908 the city created the Department of Public Safety for the Protection of Young Girls and Women, making Baldwin the director of the program.

These women were motivated by a sense that women activists contributed a positive, feminine approach to addressing society's ills. Throughout the United States, women were hired to protect and administer to incarcerated women and juveniles.

During the Great Depression came changes in how employment was popularly viewed and women's employment suffered because of this. During the depression when jobs began to become scarcer, women's career aspirations suffered. In the mid 1930's the FBI was formed, and law enforcement officers began to project a role of "combatant of crime," turning away from the idea that police work should be done by women.

During World War II, changes were made in the personnel and women were hired back again during the war, however they worked as either dispatchers or clerical workers within the departments and the men still worked the patrol duties. After World War II there was a push in advancement in the profession through integration with the men and the number of women police officers doubled. There was the re-establishment of the International Association of Women Police and an increased enthusiasm for the profession as a career as well. All of this led to a change and in 1968 two women from the Indianapolis Police Department were allowed to go on patrol duty.

Now, for the past twenty years, police departments in the United States must hire people without regard to their race or gender. Many believe that the largest barrier in the increasing numbers of women in policing is the attitudes and behavior of their male partners. Studies are done nationwide about discrimination and sexual harassment in the police departments and many times the commanders can not only tolerate such practices by others, but are frequently perpetrators themselves. Many times the hostile environments and discrimination keep women away from any type of law enforcement work.

Key Issues and Why they need to be Resolved

Significant steps have been taken to help ease the pain for years of unfair treatment; however, remnants of discrimination in the workplace still linger. This could not be more apparent than in the field of policing, a profession that has been dominated by white men since the dawn of its inception. Even today, in the 21st century, female and minority officer recruitment remains a very sensitive topic among police management and is a highly debated controversial issue in the criminal justice field altogether.

Female and minority officer recruitment is a major concern for criminal justice management, and rightfully so. Federal law applies pressure to employers by threatening the use of anti-discrimination lawsuits to encourage the hiring of minorities and women. In a perfect world, agency employees would be a small-scale representation of the community that they serve. Unfortunately, this is not always possible, especially in a field like law enforcement where, because of bad history, minorities and women do not feel comfortable, welcome, or even desire to work in law enforcement. Without more minority applicants, management will continue to have a tough time getting the numbers that the government wants to see (http://www.crf-usa.org/brown50th/adarand_affirmative_action.htm).

So, how do agencies go about recruiting minorities and female officers? We already know as a general rule the

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