Do you think generally speaking that women would make better police officers than men?

[NNN0LHI]

I have thought about this subject my entire life and have just about concluded they would be better. Not trying to be sexist. Just looking at this from a mans viewpoint I can see myself cooperating with a woman cop much more than a man cop. And for the record I am good friends with several male cops who I know are good cops and do the right thing every time. But generally speaking I think women are more suited to this profession.

Perhaps I should have phrased this more accurately and said "some women", would make better cops? But I think you get the idea.

Anyone else ever thought about this?

Don

[H2O Man]

1. No.

It's an individual thing.

[Dennis Donovan]

2. I don't think gender comes into play...

Every cop, male or female, I've ever met was a complete asshole. And, I come from a long line of cops. I know this first-hand.

[izquierdista]

20. Gotta credit their selection process

They must recruit by following every turd back to its source.

[madokie]

3. I think so

I think there would be a lot less rough'n up the general population if we had more women cops.

[FBaggins]

8. I think you and NNN0LHI are approaching the question from the perspective of a law-abiding citizen

He thinks that he treats them with more respect and you think that they're less likely to treat you without respect.

But police exist to protect us from non-law-abiding people. They may have a different perspective.

[NNN0LHI]

15. The hell! One of those cop fiends of mine is my parole officer

OK, just joking around.

Want to know what the deciding factor was for me on this? Had a neighbor who lived in my subdivision for over 20 years with me. State Trooper. Helluva nice guy. He was just about ready to retire and then got into a big huge screaming match with some of the local teenagers. I know these kids. I know these kids and never had any kind of problems with them. They are teenage assholes. Just like I was when I was a teenager. And I am sure just like the State Trooper was when he was a teenager. I think we all pretty much were?

And then you have to figure this guy had been dealing with adolescents on the job for 30 years and he still couldn't avoid getting into a pissing match with a few local teenagers. What is up with that I was wondering?

Way I figured if this guy was unable to handle a group of teenagers without losing his cool he probably should have never been a cop in the first place.

Don

[seabeyond]

4. i was going to say SOME women, lol. i have read studies that say, yes they do.

they are more able to deescalate the situation. i am sure there are men that do that well, and there are women that do it poorly. but it is recognized that on many levels women do the job differently. departments have recognized and some have taken the knowledge for the betterment of their department. (i believe it was a program i watched on this a couple years ago).

that being said, i think there are areas men better balance and what i see, they like to use both gender to advantage.

[-..__...]

5. Hard to say.

Even some hard core tough guys would rather cooperate than get into a physical confrontation with a woman.

Then there are guys who would take the attitude "there ain't no way in hell I'm going to let a woman, police officer or not, tell me what to do".

[XanaDUer]

6. No

I think there are people of both genders, all walks of life, who have an authoritarian streak, so should not be cops.

That is not to say there are some wonderful, dedicated female cops, nor male cops.

[shraby]

7. Female cops are much easier to overpower by the

criminal than are male cops. Therefore, working as pairs, it might be better, but not a female alone on the beat.

[safeinOhio]

9. NO

After being married to one. Most have no sense of humor and have a big chip on their shoulder.

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. "Often" yes. "Generally" no.

Women bring different skills. The ability to break up a bar fight or control a guy on PCP? Not so much.

Would a woman have handled this incident better?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsJO5yLZn9g

[Lint Head]

11. I think men and women should be thought of as equally employable.

[Brooklyns_Finest]

12. No

End thread

[Demoiselle]

13. I'm gonna stride bravely right down the middle here and say

yes, there should be more female cops because they may bring a different set of skills and instincts to the mix that can compliment the traditional male skill set......and that cops, male and female, should ALWAYS work in pairs! (Pairs of any kind.)

[lunatica]

14. Both sexes are needed, just like in everything else

[ZombieHorde]

16. I often think the job should not exist. All the cops went on strike, years ago, where I live,

and nothing bad happened. The only difference was you didn't see any cops while you were driving around. It was so much better.

[11 Bravo]

17. Generally speaking, I'm not sure. But the thought of Michelle Bachmann or Sarah Palin ...

with a badge and a gun is pretty fucking frightening.

[cherokeeprogressive]

18. Better? Nnnnnnnope.

[iris27]

19. Well, they do make *hotter* police officers than men...

:yoiks:

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Seriously, though? I think the force would benefit from having more women, but not to the point of excluding guys or anything. Stereotypes are stereotypes, even "good" ones.

[booley]

21. No

The problems of authoritarianism and the stress affect women just as badly as men.

Indeed, some women may feel a need to out macho the men to get accepted.

In short, women wont' make worse cops. But thinking they will make better ones might be missing what make s a cop bad to begin with.

[saras]

22. Wrong question. IF police were randomly selected from the population, THEN ...

If you kept the current selection process, you will pretty much get people who support current police culture. I think you'd have a hard time finding enough women who fit the current criteria. You would have to change some things to get enough cops, and what you changed would affect your results.

If you select randomly from the population, then I think selecting from women would, currently, get you better cops than selecting from men. I think the effect is more cultural than biological, though there is a small biological component, and our culture seems to be doing a fairly good job of eradicating the appropriate values, let alone actually developing them.

On the other hand, if you selected male cops randomly from the population, I think you'd also get better cops than we currently have, on average - acknowledging that we do currently have SOME outstanding cops, and that SOME random citizens would make utterly evil cops.

Personally I think the most important part is to have your pool of potential cops come from a culture that, all through childhood, consistently chooses rehabilitation over punishment. Having these values unconscious and habitual does a lot more to produce better cops than choosing based on gender or sex differences will.

[applegrove]

23. I worked in a policing environment at one time. The culture there is really, really

assertive. You need to have superb emotional boundaries. You can't generalize by sex as to who would be better in that regard. But I do think testosterone is necessary and some women have more than other women. So on the whole I'd have to say you are more likely to find male candidates than women candidates.