Are Women More Effective Police Officers Essay Example

Are women more effective police officers? When asking people what gender makes a more effective officer, I get various responses. Some people say having women in the police force has its disadvantages. That women will bring the police force down. Women officers are seen as less trained, less powerful, and less willing to use force, that they are just seen as too soft (National Survey). But others will say women will help out the police force in many ways, in a sense, make it stronger. As you look back at the past decades, you could only see women working inside the police station. This usually meant working as a dispatcher, working with female inmates, or juveniles. It was not until the early 1970’s when you could finally see women in a police uniform (Hickey). Since the 1970’s, the numbers for female police officers have risen dramatically. Today, of all the sworn officers across the country, fifth teen percent are women (Hickey). A sworn officer is a police officer with the full ability to arrest someone. This is up from two percent in the 1970’s and the numbers are still rising. But since Congress passed the amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act in 1972, saying employers could not discriminate based on gender, women could then be seen working besides their male coworkers (Policewomen). The first sworn female officer was Lola Baldwin in 1908. She was hired to perform “regular law enforcement duties” (Policewomen, 1). Even though she was hired to do normal law enforcement duties, she noticed herself working more with crime prevention and social work than working with law enforcement. Baldwin hardly ever wore a police uniform and never carried a firearm. Seeing this, she and others did not view her as the same as her male coworkers. Now, you can see more women working in the streets protecting the communities around them. Many people have different views of women being in the police force. I believe that having women in the