Posted on 03/14/2005 10:54:08 PM PST by nickcarraway
If you've got the heart, head and determination, a career in law enforcement could be for you. And thanks to the changing times, gender is no longer an excluding issue.
Look around Solano County these days and you'll see female police officers everywhere from patrolling the streets to commanding an agency. The only real problem, insiders say, is the huge gender disparity at each agency.
Which could be why a huge recruitment of women is under way across the state.
On Saturday, a "Women in Policing" forum staffed by numerous agencies - including the Vacaville and Fairfield police departments and the California Highway Patrol - was held in Sacramento.
On June 4, the Sacramento Police Department hosts its second-annual Law Enforcement Expo/Female Fitness Challenge at William Land Park. While showcasing all the agency has to offer, the event also gives women a preview of the department's physical agility test.
The physicality of the job is no joke, Vacaville police Sgt. Carren Robinson said, but practice, technique and dedication will smooth that road.
"The bad guys don't stop working out, so you can't stop," she said.
Robinson, a near 16-year veteran, heads the fitness team, defensive tactics, K-9 and bike patrol. She was the department's first female field training officer and first female sergeant.
Physical fitness, she said, is key to both serving the community well and to an officer's overall health, as foot chases and scuffles are routine.
Fellow Vacaville Officer Debi Lopez can attest to that.
On a recent day, the 25-year veteran - who served as a dispatcher for 14 years and was a detective with the Crime Suppression Team - chased down and captured a parolee in Vacaville. That same day in Fairfield, she and her partner helped nab two suspects in a stolen car who had led officers on a brief chase.
While physical activity was required in these instances, she said, women have other unique skills that lead to the same desired result.
"We have a woman's and mother's instinct. Often, it is the key to intervention," she said. "Sometimes, just having that little bit of extra empathy ... seems to be the key to breaking down the walls."
Most women don't have that tough, manly ego, she said, and people react to them differently.
"Women have a different ability to defuse a lot of situations because of our enhanced communication skills," explained Sheriff's Sgt. Kelly Datzman, a five-year veteran of the Solano County Sheriff's Office who also spent five years with the University of California, Berkeley, Police Department.
Those communication skills, Datzman said, not only helped her to calm situations and gain people's trust, but also kept her from harm on numerous occasions.
"So many new recruits do not know how to talk to people," said Fairfield Police Sgt. Liz Gresham, an 18-year department veteran. "Just relax and talk to people normally. You don't have to be on a power trip."
There's no doubt that recruits have much to learn, and longtime officers have much advice to offer - like the fact that timidity won't fly in the business.
Gresham, who also conducts evaluations at the police academy at Napa Valley College, remembers a recruit who cried during a training scenario.
"You've gotta have thick skin," she warned. "With both your co-workers and the bad guys - if you show fear, they'll walk all over you."
Life experience, she said, will speed the process. The more experience you've had - an education, jobs, living on your own - the better you'll deal with situations both on and off the job.
"Trying to juggle family, shift work, your own personal needs," Gresham said, will help officers understand similar needs of those they serve.
Being a "mature" 29 when she started her career may have helped Vallejo police Capt. JoAnn West succeed. A former sheriff's dispatcher in Contra Costa County, she spent the last 23 years in Vallejo. Aside from being the commander of the local branch of the California Highway Patrol, she is the highest-ranking female officer in Solano County.
"I was receptive to criticism from my FTOs," she recalled. "Also, I wasn't shocked or easily intimidated by what I observed on the street."
The job is tough for both men and women, she said, but it's a rewarding challenge.
"The best part of police work from my perspective is the satisfaction felt when we are able to tell a victim that we have solved their crime and that the suspect has been arrested," she said. "An officer feels some ownership to every crime report they take and desire to be able to solve it. It is a significant feeling of accomplishment when we are able to do that."
Potential candidates are advised to improve their writing skills, train hard physically and mentally, keep clean financially, steer clear of criminal activity and expect nothing.
"Women who get into this line of work shouldn't expect an easy ride," Datzman cautioned, "because you won't get it."
More murders coming to a courtroom near you soon!
From now on everybody will refer to themselves as an "it"...
Surely the criminals, especially the hardened ones, fear the women cops more than they do the male cops. Some psychobabbling idiot shrink will probably come up with some cockamaymee theory to that effect.
What happened to all the women baseball and football players? Is this not discrimination?(sarcasm off.)
How can ''gender'' not be any sort of issue while **simultaneously** a company, a bureaucracy, a ''law enforcement'' agency strives to increase hiring of persons of a particular sex (NOT EFFING ''GENDER'', btw)?
Just damn.
I had to call the Sheriffs a few weeks ago for a scary incident, and a small,young woman deputy rolled up in her car, flowers painted on her long nails, earrings, and could not even pay attention or understand the details I needed to give.
Maybe it's a gender bias, but I do NOT feel safe knowing she is what I've got out there patrolling.
Most female officers do not have the body strength to over come a strong suspect. 99 percent of the time any body can do police work because it is mundan and booring. It is when the crap hits the fan that you find out what they are made off.
If they are grandmothers and especially vertically challenged, there are jobs available in Atlanta!
"Melanie Singer"
It depends on the individual woman, whether she's up to the job. Brains help, quick-wittedness, savvy. Also, the sense to know when it's better for two officers escort a violent prisoner. Here in my little MA town, we were lucky enough to have one crackerjack police officer, a woman, not some behemoth...maybe five foot five or six. She stayed three or four years and while she was here, covered herself with honors. Captured an escaped and dangerous armed felon on the highway...by her lonesome...and that was just one incident. She was a real pro. No man was better, only bigger! She could relate to teenagers, adults. She was more than smart, she was professional and clearly on her way to bigger things. I think she's a state cop now, probably a detective.
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