NCJ Number
178827
Journal
Police: The Law Enforcement Magazine Volume: 23 Issue: 8 Dated: August 1999 Pages: 18-23
Date Published
August 1999
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article assesses the effectiveness of current efforts to recruit women to policing and suggests ways to improve these efforts.
Abstract
The recruiting efforts of law enforcement agencies are inadequate given the cultural barriers that keep women away from police work. Most current recruiting efforts focus on candidates who meet minimum age requirements; however, many young people have developed career interests well before any attempt is made to attract them to police work, ultimately reducing the number of potential police officer candidates. Two of the most prominent efforts to correct this oversight are Law Enforcement Exploring and high school career academies. Exploring is a program of the Boy Scouts of America; it is for both male and female teenagers interested in law enforcement. The nearly 3,000 local posts in the United States are sponsored mostly by law enforcement agencies. Career academies are high school career-focused programs structured as small school-within-a-school learning communities. Both students and faculty volunteer to be in the program and work closely with a wide variety of government and community partners who provide leadership, guidance, and other resources. The training provided in the career academy helps participants decide if law enforcement is the career for them. Another effort to reach youth for law enforcement careers is the teenage police academy, which educates youth about law enforcement; teens attend a full week of training during the summer to learn about all aspects of police work. Another problem is retaining women in policing once they have become officers. Female officer role models and mentors should play an integral role in the successful adjustment and retention of new female recruits.