There are not enough women in law enforcement, and police departments need to do more to recruit them, both to better serve the public and to bolster their ranks overall.
That is the message of a new national movement that has gotten the attention of at least two law enforcement agencies in Maine, with the possibility that more may sign on in the future.
“I’m surprised more agencies haven’t jumped on board,” said Brunswick Police Chief Scott Stewart, after his became Maine’s first municipal department to join the initiative earlier this month.
Brunswick and the University of Southern Maine’s campus police department — the first in the state to sign on — have joined more than 300 police organizations nationwide in the 30x30 Initiative, a new effort to change how police departments recruit new officers, particularly female officers.
Its name comes from its goal — to see women making up at least 30% of new police recruits nationwide by 2030.
The initiative, which launched in March of 2021, was born out of an effort by the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives, according to Kym Craven, the association’s executive director.
Historically, Craven said, policing has been seen as a male-dominated profession, and studies have shown a lack of women in law enforcement. As recently as the 1980s, she said, only about 5% of police officers nationwide were female.
Today, Craven said, there are individual departments that are notable exceptions, such as the campus police department at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, where 30% of its officers are female, and the Madison, Wisconsin, police department, where 28% of officers are women.
Nationally, however, while the overall percentage has grown since the 1980s, women still only make up about 13% of police officers in the U.S., Craven said.
“Unfortunately, women are very underrepresented in law enforcement,” she said.
Anecdotally, several departments in Maine report small numbers of female officers.
In Brunswick, Stewart said he only has three female officers out of 38. Gráinne Perkins, chief of police at the University of Southern Maine, said only one out of 10 officers are female.
In Biddeford, newly appointed Police Chief JoAnn Fisk has been working as an officer in various departments in York County since 1978 and said she can remember when it was worse.
“There were virtually no female officers out there,” she said, referring to when she first entered the field.
Even now, she said, only six out of 25 officers in her department are female, a reflection of small numbers statewide.
“I think definitely women have been the minority,” she said.
As to why there is a dearth of women officers, Craven pointed to “a lot of factors,” but noted in particular the militarization of policing in the U.S. The discipline and physical fitness that comes from a soldier’s background has always been attractive to law enforcement.
One consequence of that, Craven said, is that police recruitment efforts in years past have focused on military imaging that, while enticing for men, were intimidating for women.
“Most of the advertising, promotion around policing showed the hypermasculine side of it,” she said. “It would have a lot of men with firearms or rappelling out of helicopters, things that were maybe not the most compelling for women.”
Perkins, who spent 15 years in the Gardai, or Irish police in her native Dublin, said “Europe is light-years ahead of the U.S.” in this regard.
While strength, discipline and tactical skill is important, she said other skills, such as the ability to communicate, de-escalate or avoid violent situations, and relate to victims also matter. This balancing of priorities, she said, would favor having more women in policing, and needs to be reflected in individual departments’ recruitment practices, both in Maine and nationwide.
“Policing has evolved since it was established,” she said. “It evolved after the 1960s riots. It evolved after George Floyd was murdered. We’re in that stage of policing evolving, and I think this the opportunity where women can step in and step up.”
One thing that may not be a factor is male culture. While men may dominate policing, the so-called hypermasculine, chest-thumping attitude, if it existed once, doesn’t seem to anymore.
Fisk said she saw very little of that throughout her career and encouraged women to not fear that when considering a job in law enforcement, saying of such exclusionary culture, “I think that’s more of an assumption now.”
Perkins said when she went into policing she worried about it, but said, “I never felt I had to prove myself” to her fellow male officers.
In Brunswick, Stewart said he actively works to prevent masculine intimidation, and said he genuinely doesn’t think it is a factor in the low number of female officers.
“I don’t,” he said. “I think society has changed so much, I mean, there aren’t pictures of women in bikinis in the locker room, but there would have been, years ago.”
Stewart said he is open to hiring female officers, but with a shrinking candidate pool for new officers statewide, he said he is often lucky to find qualified candidates at all, let alone female candidates.
“It’s not that we’re not hiring them,” he said. “They’re not even applying.”
That is what the 30x30 Initiative is about, Craven said. Departments can pledge to join the initiative, and in return the association will offer mentoring and recruiting guidance.
Departments that apply are not required to meet a goal. Instead, Craven said, it’s about demonstrating a commitment to having more women joining their ranks.
“It shows applicants that they’re serious about rethinking their organizations,” she said.
Craven said while she is pleased with the number of departments that have already signed on, with an estimated 18,000 police organizations nationwide, there is still a long way to go.
“We still have organizations that don’t have any women at all in their ranks,” she said.
Fisk said her department hasn’t signed on with the initiative yet, but she intends to.
“I hope it draws the right people to our profession,” she said.