How this Self-Assessment Guide is Organized

The National Center for Women & Policing developed this manual, Recruiting & Retaining Women: A Self-Assessment Guide for Law Enforcement, to assist law enforcement agencies in hiring and retaining more women employees.

The step by step guide is designed to help agencies examine their policies and procedures and to identify and remove obstacles to hiring and retaining sworn and civilian women employees at all levels within the organization.

The guide also provides a list of resources for agencies to use when planning or implementing changes to their current policies and procedures.

The Guide Contains Chapters Addressing the Following Issues:

• Hiring and retaining more women: The advantages to law enforcement agencies
• Assessing a law enforcement agency
• Developing a job description
• Recruiting quality candidates
• Removing obstacles in the selection process
• Designing quality recruit academies and field training programs
• Mentoring to increase retention
• Valuing civilian employees
• Implementing family-friendly policies
• Monitoring performance evaluations
• Assignments and promotions
• Preventing sexual and gender harassment, discrimination, and retaliation
• Ensuring impartial internal investigation and discipline systems
• Developing effective awards and recognition programs

Each Chapter of the Guide Contains the Following Sections:

For administrators to improve their policies and procedures for hiring and retaining women, a clear understanding of the issues covered in each chapter is necessary. In this section, the most common problems found in law enforcement agencies are discussed in detail. These problem statements are not intended to be accusatory, but were developed to assist agencies in gaining a more thorough understanding of the obstacles that exist to hiring and retaining women.

Here, administrators are alerted to aspects of the issues covered in each chapter that may require legal input and review. Federal laws and court cases are sometimes cited. Due to variations in state and local laws, it is impossible to provide specific legal information for every agency. Since the area of employment law is frequently the subject of litigation and collective bargaining agreements, all changes to personnel policies and procedures should be reviewed with legal counsel before being implemented.

This section provides solutions that may assist agencies in removing obstacles to hiring and retaining women. These suggestions are very detailed and give practical guidance about each issue discussed in the problem statement. Whenever possible, model policies in use by other law enforcement agencies have been included.

In this section, references, resources, and points of contact are provided for persons or agencies with pertinent expertise and innovative programs. In addition, a complete bibliography of related articles is included at the end of the guide.

A comprehensive checklist provides an overview of the steps involved at each stage of the self-assessment process. At a glance, users of the manual can determine whether they have reviewed key policies and practices impacting each major area of agency operations being assessed.

No manual can be comprehensive enough to cover all areas of police personnel practices. Furthermore, there are many differences between law enforcement agencies and the environment in which any specific agency operates. This manual recognizes those differences, and is intended to provide broad direction and insight into what steps can be undertaken by an agency undertaking a self-assessment process. Agency size and organizational configuration should be considered, along with state and local laws and regulations, before the guide is used or modified for use by an agency.

This manual is oriented primarily for medium to large law enforcement agencies, although the general philosophies should be applicable regardless of the agency size. The terminology used most often is that of a municipal police agency, but the manual is also applicable for sheriffs departments, state agencies such as state police, highway patrol, departments of public safety, as well as other law enforcement agencies such as game and fish, park and marine, university and school police, and federal law enforcement units.

The National Center for Women & Policing disclaims any liability or responsibility for the consequences of any actions taken in reliance on the statements or opinions expressed in this manual. The materials contained herein are not intended to establish policy, procedure, or a standard of care. Readers should consult a legal advisor familiar with state and federal employment law prior to altering their policies and procedures.

Women: The Advantages to Law Enforcement Agencies

In 1968, the Indianapolis Police Department made history by assigning the first two female officers to patrol on an equal basis with their male colleagues. 1 Since that time, women have entered the field of law enforcement in increasing numbers and played a critical role in the development of modern policing. Yet, the number of women in law enforcement has remained small and the pace of increase slow. The most recent research shows that only 14.3% of sworn personnel are female, with an annual increase of only 0.5% over the last several years.2 At this rate, women will not achieve parity within the police profession for at least another 70 years, and many have cautioned that time alone is not sufficient to substantially increasing their numbers.3

In today’s economy, law enforcement agencies are facing enormous challenges recruiting qualified candidates,4 yet traditional strategies for recruitment frequently overlook an entire pool of potential applicants – women.5 The purpose of this self-assessment guide is to provide a clear and concrete blueprint for addressing this historic neglect by removing the many built-in obstacles to hiring and retaining more women in law enforcement. First, however, we outline why these measures are critically needed by documenting the many advantages that women officers bring to law enforcement agencies.

Law enforcement today is facing a crisis — a crisis of public confidence and trust in the wake of police corruption scandals that are unparalleled in recent history. Highly publicized     incidents of police use of excessive force have generated headlines in cities around the country. Police brutality and corruption lawsuits are costing taxpayers millions of dollars each year, and their numbers and costs are only increasing.6 Money paid out in settlements and judgments is money that could otherwise be spent on crime prevention and treatment programs, on schools, social services, and other community programs that reduce crime.

At the same time, police leaders and executives are under pressure to implement community or service-oriented policing, transforming the very nature of the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve. Nationwide, communities are demanding a shift in focus from their law enforcement agencies toward a more modern approach that emphasizes communication and cooperation with citizens as well as informal problem solving.

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