John Lott discusses some of the pros and cons of using different standards for hiring police officers. His assessment is much more balanced than one I would give, but he makes a few good points. For instance, women and blacks are important for certain types of undercover work. And female victims may feel more comfortable talking to female officers.
Here’s where things get sticky: “The problem is that because of large differences in strength and size between men and women, different standards are applied to ensure that there are more female officers,” Lott writes. If anyone told me that men and women had to meet the same physical requirements while training at a police academy, I’d have to call that person a liar.
Lott wisely or unwisely, depending on your point of view, glosses over the exam pass rates between blacks and whites and focuses on the relatively weaker physical strength of women compared to men. Thankfully and rationally, he acknowledges that men and women are indeed different, despite PC rhetoric to the contrary.
I, personally, like being a woman, don’t want to be a man, and acknowledge that the average man is stronger than I am. I also contend that a dangerous criminal, especially one accused of raping a woman, would probably be delighted that my superiors were stupid enough to leave me alone with him even if I were carrying a rifle.
This is where things can turn deadly in a hurry:
Female officers are more likely to accidentally shoot people. Each 1 percent increase in the number of white female officers [Why white women specifically are a factor in the increase of shootings, I find interesting.] in a police force increases the number of shootings of civilians by 2.7 percent. Because of their weaker physical strength, female officers have less time to decide on whether to fire their weapon. If a man makes a mistake and waits too long to shoot a suspect who is attacking him, the male officer still has a chance of using his strength to subdue the attacker. Female officers (as was the case in Atlanta) will lose control of the situation at that point.
Again, common sense is the key here. Sadly, the people running things don’t seem to have any.
Update: John Lott responded to my e-mail. I asked in part, “Why does the number of shootings increase with the number of white female officers specifically?”
His reply: “If you look at page 21 in the pdf file that you can link to from the op-ed, you will see that black males have the lowest rate of accidental shootings, followed by white males, then black females. White females have the highest rate. These four rankings follow closely the relative physical strength of the officers in the four groups.”
To read the study, click on one of the PDF links on this page.
