As I recently commented on Twitter, September 10th is the anniversary of Alice Stebbins Wells becoming one of the early female officers, signing up with Los Angeles Police Department in 1910 (Windell, 2015). Marie Owens, who joined the Chicago PD in 1891, may actually lay claim to the title of THE first woman police officer. Women began joining police agencies in other countries as well in the early 1900s. Just yesterday, it was announced in local news that NVMPD police recruit Andrea Martinez won the Miss Nevada pageant and is now competing to be Miss America 2018 in Atlantic City, NJ. A woman of color, she states her goal of improving police-community relations.
According to the National Center for Women and Policing, women still make up only about 13 percent of police nationally. Women bring a different skill set to the job, are less likely to use force against citizens, and may be less likely to incur complaints. Some research shows that women police have not made great progress in attaining supervisory positions within their organizations.
Looking around my undergraduate criminal justice courses, I have as many female as male students. Most of these young women want to go into policing in some capacity (local, federal). How far we've come, how far there still is to go.
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