Influential Women? Policing Styles in Online Recruitment Materials

Abstract

This article tests the temporal relationship between the representation of females in policing and organizational change toward community-oriented policing. This mixed methods study involves secondary data analysis of the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey, open-source data collection of online recruitment materials for 493 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics agencies, quantitative content analysis of a random sample of 131 departments, and Leximancer semantic mapping of the 493 departments’ materials. The two forms of content analysis focus on the particular emphases of “legalistic,” “watchman,” and “service” styles. The quantitative content analysis results largely support the temporal model, with the percent female sworn in a given department in 2013 significantly predicting whether that department’s 2018 recruitment materials focus on service or community-oriented policing content. The Leximancer semantic mapping results provide a more ambiguous picture, including legalistic through-line language around police work.