Growing number of women leading police departments

LOS ANGELES - When Anne Kirkpatrick took the helm at the scandalridden Oakland Police Department, she inherited an agency that the city’s mayor likened to a frat house.

The veteran police officer knew she inevitably would be asked what it’s like to combat the culture as one of a growing number of women heading police departments, many struggling to repair their public image.

“What I will tell you is that I am a leader,” she said at a news conference announcing her appointment, listing qualities Oakland wanted in its police chief.

“Those character traits are not genderbased. Those are leadership-based,” Kirkpatrick said.

Female police officers tend to use wits over brawn to de-escalate potentially violent situations, experts say, and as departments shift their focus to nonviolent techniques, it’s natural they would tap more women as leaders.

Still, the number of women leading police departments pales in comparison to their male counterparts. Of the nation’s 50 largest police departments, only five are led by women. A 2013 survey conducted by the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives found just 169 women leading the more than 1,500 police departments, sheriff’s offices and other law enforcement agencies across the U.S. that responded. “It’s very pleasant to see some of these female chiefs across the country,” said Dawn Layman, the group’s president and a major in the Lenexa (Kan.) Police Department. Still, she says, there’s much work to do.

“There are still a lot of agencies that you see there are no females in even supervisory or command-level positions,” Layman said.

But as major cities continue to promote women to their top cop posts, Layman believes others will follow suit.

“I think females just bring something different to the table,” she said. “The goal is to diversify the table. We don’t want a cookie-cutter. We learn more, we bring more to the table when it is diverse.”