“As long as it does not take great upper body strength or the ability to pack 100 lbs of gear across the desert on your back, let them serve anyplace they are needed.”
Intersting related coincidence: Yesterday I accompanied daughter and son-in-law to a neighborhood ‘harvest festival’ and the local cops showed up to engage in some community PR.
Now, with that image in your mind, let me tell you the real deal: Both ‘cops’ were drop-dead gorgeous, average-size blonds who could qualify for the good-looking female cop roles in a TV show. However, both were outfitted with all the gun/communications gear that all police-people wear and there was no doubt in my mind that they were fully qualified to use said gear and handle anything that might ‘go down’.
The times, they have changed...
Watch any cop show or video of male and female cops taking down a male suspect that results in some sort of fight or wrestling. The male cops jump right on the bad guy, the females hold back almost always being smaller than the bad guy, flitter around the edges grabbing feet, etc. Males are wired to fight, women are not and no amount of politics is going to change that fact. However, I will agree some look very good in uniform.