At the present rate of growth, women will not achieve equality in law enforcement agencies. Furthermore, the data is clear that there has been progress only where women law enforcement officers and women's organizations have taken legal action to fight the discriminatory hiring and promotion practices and where court ordered consent decrees have forced agencies to increase the numbers of women or minorities hired and promoted. The gains for women in policing are so slow that, at the current rate of growth, women will never reach equal representation or gender balance in law enforcement agencies. Seven out of the 10 departments with the largest percentage of women in sworn officer positions are under or have recently been under consent decrees to hire women or minorities. This demonstrates that nearly all of the largest gains have been achieved only as a result of lawsuits initiated by women in law enforcement and women's organizations to force these agencies to hire more women or minorities.
State agencies trail local agencies by a wide margin.
Based on reporting by 106 of the largest 125 state, county and municipal law enforcement agencies. Revisions in the calculations are reflected in this report, although overall percentages are virtually unchanged and trends and conclusions are unaffected by the revised numbers. Nationwide studies consistently find that discrimination and sexual harassment are pervasive in police departments and that supervisors and commanders not only tolerate such practices by others, but are frequently perpetrators themselves. Hostile environments and systemic discrimination keep women from joining police agencies in more significant numbers and from promoting up the ranks to policy-making positions, thus perpetuating a style of policing which is outdated, ineffective, and enormously costly to communities. In fact, no research has shown that strength is related to an individual's ability to manage successfully a dangerous situation.