Of all police chiefs in Georgia, approximately only 3% are women. | Kindel Media/Pexels
Of all police chiefs in Georgia, approximately only 3% are women. | Kindel Media/Pexels
Duluth will welcome Col. Jacquelyn Carruth as she shatters glass ceilings to become the city's first female police chief.
Carruth graduated from the FBI National Academy, then went on to work in nearly every position in the Duluth Police Department for over 25 years, having joined it in 1996, Fox 5 Atlanta reported. She was once a member of the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange Program.
"Col. Carruth plans to continue building on the solid foundation that Chief Belcher has already set in place," the Duluth Police Department said in a statement. "Her focus will be on maintaining high standards of policing, continuing and expanding the department’s crime-fighting capabilities through the use of technology, and continuing to find ways to build positive relationships with all members of our community."
Of all police chiefs in Georgia, approximately only 3% are women, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.
In an editorial published by the National Institute of Justice, Capt. Ken Clary of the Iowa State Patrol said that the country's average for female police officers in county and city departments hovers at approximately 13%.
"Police agencies have made little progress in increasing this number since the mid-1980s, especially regarding women in command positions," Clary said in the editorial.
Women are commonly called into law enforcement for different purposes than men, such as fostering a supportive work environment, job enrichment and family-friendly policies, Clary said.
"Recruiting women for positions in law enforcement is only one side of the problem," Clary said. "Retention also proves difficult among women officers. Anecdotally, it is thought that women leave policing due to challenges with work-life balance, underrepresentation, and leadership. Rigorous evaluations are needed to determine the accuracy of these assumptions. Appreciating the unique skills female officers can bring to the job (for example, female officers’ increased effectiveness in de-escalating incidents compared to their male counterparts) is the first step in welcoming them into a profession where they are vastly underrepresented."
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