Gendered Communications and Identities of Female and Male Police Officers in Canada

• In Event: Experiences of Women Police Officers: Boys’ Club, Invisible Barriers, and Gendered Communication

Abstract

Communication between citizens and officers is the major asset of community style policing, allowing people to feel more at ease by creating a sense of legitimacy and trust in police. Past research indicates that women police officers feel that they are better able to calmly address a situation and communicate with those involved than their male counterparts who may act aggressively or seek to administer blame. Ten male and ten female officers were asked about how they came to be a police officer, how they rose to their current rank, who they communicate best with, their identity as a police officer, work uniforms, and how they facilitate communication with colleagues and the public both verbally and non-verbally. Out of the officers interviewed in one large Canadian province, fourteen are senior officers, eight of whom are women: a sample unique to this study.

Author

• Sarah E. Bannister, University of California, Riverside