January 10, 2008
UW police nearly twice national average in women officers
The UW Police are proud of their numbers when it comes to women represented in the work force — and they have reason to be.
UW Police Chief Vicky Stormo said the department just hired four new officers, and three of them are women. This brings the total of women UW Police officers to 11 out of the total force of 48, or just a hair under 23 percent.
That’s close to twice the national average. According to the National Center for Women and Policing, the national average of women on police forces is 12.7 percent. And even that estimate might be a bit high.
“I feel really good about it,” Stormo said. “All of law enforcement has struggled to improve the makeup of our departments to match the community, and one of the hardest parts has been the recruitment of women. So to have achieved this level is a huge success story, and the others will be envious of us.”
The three new officers are Tanesha Van Leuven, who comes from the Auburn Police Department; Kathryn Shank, from the City of Tacoma force and Sarah Gordon, who is an entry-level recruit. They all started on the same day, Nov. 26.
All of the new hires can begin work right away, Stormo said, but Gordon will attend the 18-week course at the Basic Law Enforcement Academy in Burien, starting in January. All the new officers will go through orientation and learn the UW policies and procedures, Stormo said. “And we have them work in different segments of the department, so they can get familiar with how it’s run.” Gordon, who is new to policing, will do “ride-alongs” with experienced officers while waiting to attend the academy.
Applying for the UW Police is a fairly extensive, in-depth process, for understandable reasons. Stormo said all four new hires came from a group of 38 people who applied in the summer and were given a screening test for basic skills. Of that group, four were hired.
The screening test, she said, includes matters of physical agility, cognitive recall, math and questions about ethics, among other things. There are two tests a year, and another was recently held, so more employees chosen soon.
Stormo said she also feels good about the diversity of the UW Police, though that’s a goal such agencies strive for continually. There are 10 African-American police officers at the UW, or just under 21 percent, and three Asians, or about 6 percent. There is one Hispanic officer and one Pacific Islander on the force as well.
The UW Police are way ahead of national numbers with nearly 23 percent women officers. An article in the November 2007 edition of Police Chief magazine notes that even the 12.7 percent figure reported by the National Center for Women and Policing might be a bit high, as “only the nation’s largest police agencies were survey, and these agencies employ the highest percentage of women.” That article also quotes the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, saying that “On October 31, 2003, in more than 14,000 city, county and state police agencies, only 76,000, or 11.4 percent, of the police officers employed were women.”
Stormo, who is retiring this month, is herself a relative rarity as a woman police chief. Out of about 14,000 police chiefs in the country, she said, only about 130 are women, many of them at colleges and universities rather than large metropolitan departments.
The UW Tacoma also is proud to have a woman in command of campus safety. Susan Wagshul-Golden has been on the job as security director for the branch campus for about six months.
