: Police agencies need flexibility for diversity, safety
By Sue Rahr and John Lovick / For The Herald
Calls to increase the diversity of police departments have been echoing for decades, especially when it comes to increasing the number of women in the profession.
A National Institute of Justice report cites a broad range of benefits from increasing the number of women in policing, which over the past 50 years has hovered around 12 percent, with only slight improvements for some agencies. The “30 X 30 Initiative,” from the NYU Law School Policing Project, recommends that women should make up 30 percent of the patrol force in police agencies by 2030.
But how do we achieve a goal that has eluded our profession since we each began our careers four decades ago? A joint report issued in 2021 by the Office of Community Oriented Policing and the International Association of Chiefs of Police states, “Agencies choosing to offer flexible work schedules and rotating shifts could also be advantageous to families … helping law enforcement agencies attract and retain top officer talent for whom family health and wellness are of principal concern.”
There’s precedent for a policy like this: emergency room nursing and the flexible work schedules it requires. Both nursing and policing require skills and training that are perishable, and staffing needs that follow a large and predictable pattern of fluctuating demand by hour of the day and day of the week. Both careers require clear thinking and life-and-death decision making.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-police-agencies-need-flexibility-for-diversity-safety/
