Female Officers and Community Policing: Examining the Connection between Gender Diversity and Organizational Change

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the temporal relationship between gender diversity and the adoption of community policing. The results from three separate structural equation models suggest that gender diversity is the stronger temporal predictor. The findings highlight the potential importance of gender diversity in organizational change. In theory, increasing the number of female officers may increase organizational agility through the creation of an alternative cultural ethos. More research is needed to understand how gender diversity affects police agencies, as well as how calls to reform the institution of policing affect women in law enforcement.

Keywords:

• communication
• community
• law enforcement
• structural equation models (SEM)
• training
• women

Notes

In the course of testing a theoretical model predicting female officer representation through the use of 2007 LEMAS data, Schuck (2014b) found that the adoption of community policing initiatives was significantly related to higher levels of gender diversity in municipal police departments, even after controlling for the size of the jurisdiction, racial and ethnic diversity (either in the jurisdiction or in the department), the percentage of women in the labor force, an egalitarian climate, organizational screening requirements, consent decree, collective bargaining, being responsible for operating a jail, professional membership, salary, and incentives and benefits.

The entry of women into policing can also be viewed as antifeminist. Heidensohn (1992) and others note that many of the arguments that are used to promote women in policing were designed to protect the traditional definition of family and resulted in women controlling women rather than women freeing women from men’s control (Carrier, 1988).

Herbert (2006) has also raised important questions about the efficacy of community policing in terms of the role of the community, and how much participation is needed from residents to make their voice a legitimate representation of the collective will of the neighborhood.

The Tucker-Lewis Index is also referred to as the non-normed fit index (NNFI).