It was early morning, on a Saturday. I was in foot pursuit. I ran left, then jerked right. I side-saddled over a short wall. At a full sprint, I scaled a chain-link fence. Whew. I didn’t rip my pants. I kept running. Up ahead, a 6-foot retaining wall stood in my way. I jumped. I hooked my right arm and right ankle. Then I swung my left leg over. I landed on both feet. The suspect was nowhere in sight. But there on the ground, my partner lay lifeless in the roadway. Despite the 35 pounds he had on me, I dragged him 10 feet to the safety of the sidewalk. Paramedics were on their way.

It was early morning, on a Sunday. My partner and I were dispatched to a residential burglary alarm inside a gated condominium complex. Of all the community gate codes we had, we didn’t have that one. He looked at me. He looked over at the 8-foot iron gate. He looked back at me. He had seniority. I knew that meant it was me who had to climb over and let us in. I handed him my flashlight to hold. I climbed over. As I dropped to the other side, I heard loud cheering coming from across the street. There, on the front lawn, I saw two elderly women in lawn chairs, enjoying their morning coffee. They yelled, “Yeah! You go girl! You show him how it’s done!” I looked at my partner and I laughed. He looked annoyed, shook his head, and hurriedly ushered us inside the complex to find the unit where we had been dispatched.

Of these two stories, which one is real? The second story is a real on-the-job experience, and it is the only “wall” story in my career that stands out. The first story describes the physical agility test I had to complete to continue moving through the hiring process to become a police recruit, before starting the academy. What do these stories have in common? They were both tests. The first was scored, and if I failed to scale the 6-foot wall, it was an automatic failure of the test. The second was a “test” by my male partner to see if I, a woman, was strong enough to get over the gate. In my 17 years as a police officer, I can count the number of times I have had to climb a wall or a fence on one hand. And yet, I’ve spent my career overcoming symbolic walls, proving time and time again that I, a woman, belong in policing.

Benefits of Female Officers

The discussion of gender in policing is not a question of whether men or women are “better” at being police officers. The simple answer is, they are better together. But the reality is, in the United States, the representation of male officers is still significantly higher than female officers, 86.2 percent compared to 13.8 percent, respectively. In spite of this disparity, evidence-based research shows there are substantial benefits of having more female officers. These benefits relate to (1) differences in use of force, (2) different and potentially more effective communication styles, and (3) gender diversity creating better community policing.

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