NCJ Number
195766
Date Published
April 2001
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This study conducted by the National Center for Women and Policing examined the increases, gaps, and decreases in the number of women in law enforcement in the year 2000.
Abstract
Through a survey conducted by the National Center for Women and Policing in 2000, this study examined the losses and gains of women in law enforcement over the past 28 years. The study was conducted from July 2000 to November 2000 and surveyed 349 law enforcement agencies (169 municipal agencies, 69 county departments, and 44 State agencies). Key survey findings included: (1) women currently comprise 13.0 percent of all sworn law enforcement positions among all three agencies in the United States; (2) over the last 9 years, the representation of women in sworn law enforcement ranks increased from 9 percent in 1990 to 13.0 percent in 2000; (3) the gains for women in policing are so slow that at the current rate of growth women will not reach equal representation or gender balance within in the police profession for at least another 70 years; (4) women currently hold 7.3 percent of sworn top command law enforcement positions, 10.3 percent of supervisory positions, and 13.7 percent of line operation positions; (5) more than half (57 percent) of the agencies surveyed reported no women in top command positions and 88 percent reported no women of color in their highest ranks; (6) State agencies trailed municipal and county agencies by a wide margin in hiring and promoting women; (7) consent decrees mandating the hiring and/or promotion of women and/or minorities are a significant factor in the gains women have made in law enforcement; and (8) on average, in agencies without a consent decree mandating the hiring and/or promotion of women and/or minorities, women comprised 9.7 percent of sworn personnel compared to 14.0 percent of those agencies with consent decrees. Overall, women had made small gains in law enforcement over the past 28 years and the numbers continue to increase at an extremely slow rate. Graphs and appendix