Step Up to Law Environment: A Successful Strategy for Recruiting Women into the Law Environment Profession

• NCJ Number: 227904
• Journal: THE POLICE CHIEF Volume: 76 Issue: 6 Dated: June 2009 Pages: 68-70,73
• Author(s): Lianne M. Tuomey; Rachel Jolly
• Date Published: June 2009
• Length: 4 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article describes Vermont's Step Up to Law Enforcement program, a partnership of several agencies to improve the representation of women in the law enforcement field.

Abstract

In spite of heightened recruitment efforts, the number of women entering policing has not increased substantially over the past two decades. In the State of Vermont, several agencies came together in 2004 to improve the representation of women in the profession and saw immediate success. The Step Up to Law Enforcement program is a recruitment strategy, a skill-building resource, and an intensive experiential opportunity, as well as a gender-specific job-training program. The program helps to fill gaps and diversify the forces of protective services in Vermont. The program has three key components: physical conditioning, women's resources, and training in classroom and technical topics specific to the profession. This article describes the reasons for and the implementation of this successful recruitment program. 8 notes