Running header: THE THIN PINK LINE 1

The Thin Pink Line: A Case Study of the Experiences and Opinions

of Fairfield, Ohio’s Female Police Officers

Alyssa Lee

University of Cincinnati

Introduction
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How many female police officers do you know? For most of us, the answer is either one,

two, or none. In an era of #MeToo and examining the representation of minority groups, it is

important to consider the gendered experiences of female police officers. I am a female Criminal

Justice student who wants to be a police officer, so this study is of particular interest to me.

However, you do not have to be a Criminal Justice major or even be female to be interested in

learning more about a serious minority in law enforcement.

This is a case study on the experiences and opinions of female police officers in the city

of Fairfield, Ohio. I hope to one day work as a police officer in Fairfield, which makes these

results especially important to me. If the work environment of the department is toxic, I would

like to find that out now so I can begin to plan another career path.

Fairfield has around 60 full-time sworn officers, but just seven of them are female which

results in women making up only twelve percent of their police force. However, one of the

sergeants I included in my study told me that this is considered a very good percentage of

women compared to some neighboring departments like Hamilton and Oxford.

I have been fortunate enough to know most of Fairfield’s female officers since I was a

child and they have had a huge impact on my life. I have always loved crime shows but the main

characters doing all the “cool” stuff were men. I still remember the first time I met a female

police officer and being absolutely star struck because at that age I did not realize that women

could be police officers as well. I would say most of the reason why I want to become a police

officer now is due to that encounter. I can easily picture myself doing what they do, but my main

concern is the environment they work in. You can love your job but if you clock into an

environment of harassment and derogatory language you likely will not want to do it anymore.
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In this study my work revolved around three main research questions: 1) if the officers

noticed any obstacles in their respective career paths, 2) what elements of the job the officers

enjoy, and 3) if there was any discrimination in the cases that the officers have been assigned.

Since most of the officers at Fairfield have been there for a decade at least, I expected the answer

to my first research question to be yes, but I was less sure what form the obstacles would take.

Based on my limited experience from ride-alongs, I expected the answer to the second question

to be helping people. Fairfield is a small department, located in a city measuring about twenty

square miles (as estimated by one of the officers), so I did not expect them to have a lot of the

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit 1 style cases. However, I expected that if any cases of that

nature occured in the city, they would be assigned to female officers.

To further investigate these research questions, I chose to conduct interviews with

Fairfield’s seven female officers. They have a Major, a Detective, two Sergeants, two regular

road patrol officers, and one night shift patrol officer. Due to the time constraint of a fifteen

week semester and a full class load, I was only able to interview five of the seven officers. I

chose interviews because I felt that writing a survey would take too much time and would need

to have too many questions to be fully accurate. I also felt that the officers had enough

paperwork as it is and that they would be more willing to assist me if I was not adding to their

workload.

Literature Review

1
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is a popular long-running television show about fictional New York City
detectives who investigate cases involving the abuse, assault, and otherwise mistreatment of women, children, and
other minority groups.
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For this study ten articles from a variety of authors, publishers, and time frames were

discovered using the University of Cincinnati’s online library database. The articles cover a wide

range of topics and it was initially difficult to determine any common themes among them. Upon

closer inspection, I noticed three general themes. Each of the articles I read falls under one of

these thematic categories. Furthermore, each of the thematic areas is present in my study.

The first theme I noticed was discrimination against female officers. Articles that

possessed this theme included: the Women in Federal Law Enforcement study from 2014, the

Gossett article from 2008, the Greene article from 2000, the Guajardo article from 2015, the

Lonsway article from 2008 and the Sears article from 2013.

The Women in Federal Law Enforcement (2014) study examined the relationships

between having a more masculine or feminine personality, an officer’s sexual orientation, and

the amount of mentoring that officer received. The study found that overall being a minority

meant less mentoring, and that the more masculine the personality the more mentoring received.

Officers who identified as part of the LGBT community received less mentoring. However,

LGBT officers with masculine personalities received more mentoring. Heterosexual officers with

more feminine personalities also received more mentoring.

The Gossett article (2008) discussed incidents of female officers reporting discrimination.

The officers reported discrimination from three main sources: the public, male supervisors or

administrators, and fellow male officers. Some officers also reported experiencing discrimination

from all three groups. The female officers said the climate in their departments was not great, but

recognized that it was improved significantly from the climate in years past.
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The Greene article (2000) discussed the history of black female officers. An interesting

finding was that Columbus, Ohio did not employ a black officer until 1938 and was one of the

slowest cities to do so. Greene also looked at the specific discrimination faced by black women

in the criminal justice field. There is a historical tension with the police that makes them less

likely to report any issues to their supervisors. Many are told they are only officers because of

“affirmative action” and are treated even worse than white female officers. Black female officers

have to deal with racism from both the public and their departments. Many officers reported

feeling isolated from their colleagues.

The Guajardo article (2015) was a case study similar to my own. However, Guajardo

conducted a longitudinal study from 2000 to 2013. He looked at the ability of female officers to

advance up the chain of command in the New York City Police Department. He found that they

were not able to advance very far. His study also had a much larger sample than mine. Of the

thirty-five thousand total officers in the NYPD, only five thousand were women compared to

twenty-two thousand men. Guajardo also found that there were only one thousand female

supervisors compared to seven thousand male supervisors.

The Lonsway article (2008) was most similar to my research because it was also a case

study. The cases examined were of thirteen female officers who had sued their departments for

sexual harassment or another type of discrimination. When they initially reported their

experiences, the officers described severe retaliation including: being threatened, property

damage and vandalization, and even being physically assaulted. Only five out of the thirteen saw

changes implemented in their department. Eight out of the thirteen were glad they sued.
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The Sears article (2013) discussed the discrimination faced by LGBT employees of the

criminal justice system. The discrimination often goes far beyond a demotion or firing.

Respondents reported severe verbal, physical, and even sexual abuse. In some instances other

officers would refuse to provide backup for them. This study was used to provide evidentiary

support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

My starting point for this entire project was discrimination against female police officers,

because it was what I was initially most interested in. I ended up branching out into other issues,

but still kept some questions regarding discrimination in the interviews. A few officers reported

having experienced minor incidents of sexism in regard to their ability, but said that they did not

feel they had ever experienced harassment.

The second theme I noticed was that some studies were interested in what women think

of the criminal justice field. Articles that possessed this theme included: the Cambareri article

from 2018 and the Seklecki article from 2007.

The Cambareri (2018) article discussed the opinions and perceptions of female

undergraduate students regarding careers in the field of criminal justice and the criminal justice

system itself. The surveys revealed that the majority of female undergraduate students did not

want to be police officers. Among the reasons cited were: potential harassment and disrespect,

being unsuccessful in the career, being unhappy in the career, and potentially low opportunities

for advancement.

The Seklecki (2007) article was the most similar and relevant to my research study. Like

me, Seklecki interviewed female police officers about their experiences, elements of the job they

enjoy, and any discrimination they experienced. Also similar to my study, Seklecki found that
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female officers enjoyed helping people and the day-to-day variety. The officers he interviewed

also described having to “prove” themselves while they were still new officers.

While not one of my specific research questions, I did have interview questions regarding

the opinions the officers had about the criminal justice system. This was interesting because

police officers are probably the largest employee group within the criminal justice system but

you do not hear a lot regarding their opinions on it. I asked the officers their opinion (most said

that it was broken and needed work) and what reforms they would like to see implemented (end

of cash bail, harsher sentences for repeat offenders).

The third theme I noticed was why women entered the criminal justice field. Articles that

possessed this theme included: the Shuck article from 2014 and the Suboch article from 2017.

The Shuck (2014) article analyzed data from over four thousand departments. A major

research topic was evaluating contributing factors to the representation of women in law

enforcement. The study discovered that departments with higher populations of female officers

had certain things in common. All the departments had community policing policies, higher

education requirements, no physical agility test, better incentives and benefits, no union, and all

the departments were accredited. Another common factor was serving larger, more diverse

communities.

In the Suboch (2017) article, the major research question was why minority officers

stayed in the law enforcement field amidst all the stories about racist police departments and

killings of unarmed minority men. For the study, female officers who were black and hispanic

were interviewed. Officers were from Las Vegas, Nevada and two unnamed smaller departments

in the Southeast region of the United States. Suboch found that peer support and healthy mentor
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relationships positively influenced officer retention, being cited as the main reasons why officers

stayed on at their departments.

My study was mostly focused on what female officers enjoy about their work, but I also

had questions about how they got into the field. All five of the officers interviewed stated that

they wanted to help people and thought becoming a police officer was the best way to do so.

Methods

For this project I conducted a case study on the experiences and attitudes of female police

officers in the city of Fairfield, Ohio. I decided to do a case study because I was only interested

in Fairfield’s female officers and because even though Fairfield has 60-some full-time sworn

officers, only seven are female. I used the existing connection I had with a female sergeant there

to obtain contact information for Fairfield’s other six female officers. I decided against creating a

detailed survey because I didn’t want to add to the paperwork the officers had by having them

read through and fill it out. Instead, I compiled questions and conducted interviews with the

officers who agreed to participate. I transcribed the interviews, and then started coding. I coded

by reading through once for each element I was studying, marking them with different colored

markers. I then analyzed the answers given in order to determine if there were any trends.

Research Questions

As a Criminal Justice major, I have heard in countless classes that women are looked

down on and often harassed when they are employees of the criminal justice system. Going into

this project, my hypothesis was that the female offices in Fairfield have also experienced this,

but to a somewhat lesser degree because Fairfield is a relatively small suburban department with

fewer than 70 officers. Also influencing my hypothesis was a recent news article that came out
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detailing Fairfield’s new police chief’s history of inappropriate behavior. The article said that

when the chief was still a sergeant of the joint Hamilton-Fairfield SWAT team, he would often

expose himself to other officers, in instances when he was both sober and intoxicated. This also

occurred on a department trip to Washington D.C. for an honor guard funeral and at a company

Christmas party. Chief Maynard also had a history of using a certain gay slur in reference to

officers who were performing poorly.

Overall, I would say I had three main research questions I aimed to answer in this study.

1: Do Fairfield’s female officers feel they had any challenges or obstacles in their career

path compared to their male colleagues?

2: What are some elements Fairfield’s female officers enjoy about the job?

3: Have Fairfield’s female officers noticed any discrimination in the cases that they are

assigned compared to their male colleagues?

Sample

The population I am studying in this project is female police officers in the city of

Fairfield, Ohio. Fairfield has about 62 sworn full-time officers, but only seven are female. I

belong to Fairfield’s Explorers program, which teaches young adults interested in law

enforcement careers what the job is really like. I approached one of our officer advisors, who is a

female sergeant, inviting her to participate in my project. Her husband is one of Fairfield’s three

K9 officers and the two of them are some of the most popular officers with the community. She

initially declined, citing the mountain of paperwork and body camera videos awaiting her

review, but provided me with email addresses for the other six female officers. Later she sent me

an email saying her schedule had opened up and I got to interview her after all. I sent out polite,
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professional emails to all six of the officers I had received contact information for, asking if they

would be interested in sitting down for a brief interview where I asked about their experiences

and opinions.

One of the six officers turned out to be a brand new hire and one of Fairfield’s three black

officers. She declined because she was extremely busy with field training and performance

reviews. Also, she didn’t feel that her four months on the job were enough experience to be of

much use to me.

One of the six was a major (which is a rank equivalent to lieutenant for officers who are

not in the union) who accepted and was eager to schedule with me. I was a little intimidated by

her because I had never met her, she had such a high rank and she had a reputation for being

extremely tough. When I actually met her, however, I felt kind of stupid for being so intimidated.

For starters, she was no more than five feet tall and looked like she could be related to Tinker

Bell. She had such a warm, infectiously funny presence that put you at ease and made you feel

like you’d known her all your life. Hers was the only interview where I laughed so hard I almost

cried.

One of the six was a detective I knew as a counselor from a middle school law camp I

attended at Miami University. She remembered me and was eager to help. This was the interview

I most looked forward to because she was the first female police officer I had ever met and I

remember being kind of starstruck and thinking she was absolutely the coolest person in the

world (spoiler alert, she still is). She likes to describe herself as “Farfield’s Olivia Benson”

because she mostly works cases involving children and/or sexual assault, just like the iconic Law

& Order: SVU character.

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One of the six was a day shift sergeant who is one of the few officers Fairfield has that is

certified as an evidence technician and is able to do all the stuff you see on shows like CSI. She

often comes to Explorers meetings to teach us how to work a crime scene properly. I was

interested to hear from her because she is an excellent instructor who knew how to joke around

and have fun but also get us to focus and be serious when needed. She is also an even greater

minority, being one of the two lesbian officers and I hypothesized that if any of the officers had

issues with discrimination, she certainly did.

One of the six was a night shift patrol officer who is one of the three black officers. She is

currently the only female officer on night shift. I don’t know her well as I only rode with her

once, but the few hours I spent with her were fun. We picked up a lost dog and I got to learn

about her passion for animals.

One of the six was a patrol officer I have done ride alongs with previously. I like her

approach to calls because she always finds a way to connect with citizens and temporarily get

their minds off whatever terrible event warranted them calling the police. Every time we went to

a call she would say “I’m sorry we had to meet under such unfortunate circumstances but I’m

glad to know you.” She asks about children’s art on fridges, pets, family pictures, sports teams,

and television shows. Out of all the officers I have gone on ride-alongs with, I feel confident in

saying she is one of the most compassionate. She is also one of Fairfield’s two lesbian officers.

Data Collection

Because my sample size is so small, I decided to just do interviews instead of making a

detailed survey that the officers most likely wouldn’t have the time to read through and fill out

anyway. I took a Women & Crime class last semester and used the questions we compiled for
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our female officer guest speakers as my starting point. Some questions that were specific to

Cincinnati’s police department I omitted. There were a lot of questions about harassment and

sexual assault that I decided not to include because A) that’s a very personal subject that I didn’t

think the officers would be comfortable discussing with someone they had just met, B) the blue

wall of silence, when officers refuse to talk about things that could get a fellow officer in trouble,

is a real phenomenon, and C) I wanted to stay away from anything that would require IRB

approval because I felt that it would take way too long to go through their process.

I added some questions about criminal justice system reform because that’s something

I’m very passionate about and am always interested to see what others think. I was especially

interested in what the officers would have to say about the system because they are employees of

it and interact with it for most of their lives. Also important to me are the questions about what

got them into the field and what they consider the best and worst parts of the job to be. I want to

be a police officer in Fairfield so this is vital information for me. If they say the conditions are

terrible and they get harassed constantly, I need to reconsider my goal of working there.

Ideally, I would have preferred a much larger sample. However, women are still a

minority in law enforcement, so I was not shocked to learn that Fairfield has so few female

officers. Nonetheless, I was very surprised when one of the sergeants told me during her

interview that Fairfield’s 7:60 ratio is considered quite good. I knew women in law enforcement

were rare, but I didn’t think they were quite that rare.

For this study I collected qualitative data from five out of the seven female officers of the

Fairfield Police Department. This data was collected through personal interviews. During the
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interviews, I took notes on what I thought were relevant pieces of information in their answers

and also recorded the sessions.

My first research question was about challenges or obstacles the officers had in their

career paths. I measured this as any discrimination, intentional or not, that the officers faced at

any point from when they started the hiring process to the end of their first year on the job. My

second research question focused on things the officers enjoy about their jobs. This one I felt was

pretty straightforward. I measured things they noted were positive aspects and paid close

attention to what they described as their best day on the job. My third research question revolved

around case assignment discrimination. I measured this as any instance where the officers

thought or knew that they were assigned a case or service call solely because they were female.

I have mentioned this before, but one limitation of this data source was size. I was only

able to interview five officers, so I cannot say conclusively whether their answers accurately

represent the entire population of female police officers. Another limitation I would note is the

method of data collection. I conducted personal interviews with officers who knew I wanted to

be a police officer, so perhaps they sugar-coated any bad experiences they have had or simply

did not mention them to me at all. These were also very personal topics they might not have felt

comfortable discussing with a teenaged stranger.

Analytical Strategy

Because my sample size was so small, I decided to spend the time transcribing the

interviews. Once that was finished, I printed out all five interviews. I am not well-versed in

Excel so I decided to code my interview data by hand. I had my three research questions written

on a separate piece of paper that I could refer to as I read. I decided that my first research
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question, regarding obstacles in their career paths, I would code with red marker. I read through

all five interviews looking for references to this element of my research, and underlined them in

red marker. For my second research question, regarding things the female officers enjoy about

the job, I decided to use purple marker. I read through all five interviews a second time and

looked for references to this element of my research. Any references I found were underlined in

purple. For my third and final research question, regarding case assignment discrimination, I

chose blue marker. I read through all five interviews a third time and looked for references to this

element of my research. I underlined the references that I found. I then compiled everything I

had underlined for each research question into three separate documents. I looked for trends and

patterns in the answers in order to provide general answers to my three research questions.

One limitation of this analytic method would be human bias. I was reading through

interviews looking for things I thought were important and relevant to my research questions. I

tried my best to catch everything they said that would provide answers to my questions.

However, it is ultimately my opinion that decided what was included and what was excluded.

Another limitation would be group size. I conducted this research project on my own, and as a

result did not have anyone that was able to read over my coding and check for errors or biases.

Results

The following are the qualitative analysis results of this research study. Because a lot of

what was discussed in the interviews was extremely personal information, my results are

presented as trends and patterns related to my research questions. My findings in this research

study were both consistent and inconsistent with my original expectations.

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Regarding my first research question, Do Fairfield’s female officers feel they had any

challenges or obstacles in their career path compared to their male colleagues?, my expectation

was that the answers would overall be yes. However, I was unsure what forms any potential

obstacles would take. My interview results showed that this expectation was incorrect. Of the

five officers interviewed, all five said that they did not have any major challenges or obstacles

compared to their male colleagues. One of the officers said her only challenge was an agility

course she ran when she initially applied for a different department. She could not make it over a

six and a half foot wall while wearing a duty belt because of her height. Other than that, all the

challenges mentioned were of the administrative variety. One officer mentioned having difficulty

adjusting to her new administrative role because she loved being on the road so much. Another

officer said her only challenge was trying to have a productive day because it always felt like she

had more paperwork to do than there were hours in the day. One officer found it difficult to fire

employees because she saw their poor performance as a negative reflection on herself as a

mentor. Another officer said she struggled with getting the older officers on day shift to follow

new policies. She even likened it to “trying to teach old dogs new tricks.”

My second research question was: What are some elements Fairfield’s female officers

enjoy about the job? My only experience with the job is from ride-alongs, but I always enjoyed

being able to help people so my expectation was that female officers would too. The interview

results showed that this expectation was correct. Of the five officers interviewed, all five said

helping people was an element of the job that they really enjoyed. Other enjoyable elements

listed were: seeing new hires they had mentored get promoted; working with children; the variety

of every day; and trying to show people who hate the police that not all officers are terrible.
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My final research question was: Have Fairfield’s female officers noticed any

discrimination in the cases that they are assigned compared to their male colleagues? My

expectation was that due to Fairfield’s small size, they would not have a lot of the Law & Order:

Special Victims Unit style cases. However, I expected that if they did have any cases of that

nature occur, they would be assigned to female officers. The interview results showed that this

expectation was overall correct, but not in the way that I expected. Of the five officers

interviewed, all five said that while they were predominantly the officers assigned to the “SVU”

style cases, it was not with a malicious or discriminatory intent. They explained that female

officers are often the best choice on cases like these because they are generally more empathetic,

compassionate, and organized than male officers. Female officers are also typically a better

choice because male officers tend to be confrontational, intimidating, and prone to escalation of

tensions. The officers noted that it is usually easier for them to form a connection with the victim

and coax them into opening up about their victimization than it is for male officers. Also, in most

instances minority groups like immigrants and members of the LGBT community are more

comfortable talking to female officers, which leads to them being more descriptive and willing to

discuss what happened to them. The officers also mentioned that this is not the case one hundred

percent of the time and that there are a few male officers who are just as suited to these kinds of

cases, which was very surprising. A similar aspect of the job that the officers discussed was field

searching. Any time officers place someone into their cruiser, whether it is for an arrest,

detainment, or simply a ride home, they first search them for weapons. A lot of male officers

aren’t comfortable searching a woman so they call a female officer to do it. Especially in the era

of #MeToo, the male officers don’t want to do anything that could be seen as inappropriate, even
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if it is simply a part of their job. Female officers are also needed in shoplifting cases. The

offenders are often women and often try to wear the stolen items out of the store. The only way

to be sure the officers have recovered all the stolen property is to have a female officer go into a

dressing room with the suspect and conduct a strip search, looking for store tags.

When I asked about discrimination, all five officers said basically the same thing. The

only experience they had that could be classified as discrimination happened while they were

new hires in their probation period. All the officers started in the mid-to-late nineteen-nineties,

and described “old school” officers who doubted that women were capable of being police

officers. They were given the cold shoulder by the other officers until they proved themselves by

completing a complex crash report, dealing with a “frequent flier” (someone who they encounter

constantly), or responding to tedious calls about cats in trees and raccoons in attics. After

proving themselves, they were welcomed into the fold and have been treated respectfully by their

colleagues ever since.

Conclusion

To conclude, I would like to discuss the limitations and potential policy implications of

the findings of this study. I briefly discussed limitations in the data collection and analytical

strategy sections, but I would like to fully review them in this section.

A main limitation I had was the workload. This project was designed to be completed in

groups of at least four. However, since I am using this experience for the University Honors

Program, I had to complete it on my own. I devised a plan, research questions, and interview

questions by myself. Five interviews were transcribed and coded by only me. Another limitation

I had was group size. Because I was working on my own, I had no one else that could review my
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work to check for potential biases. Other limitations include a small sample size and a time

constraint.

Because I had a time constraint for this project, I was unable to receive Institutional

Review Board (IRB) approval. Due to this, I cannot publish my study. My study is qualitative

data, which is difficult to make policy from. However, one policy implication that I noted could

be a response to Cambareri (2018) who examined the opinions of female undergraduate students

regarding working for the criminal justice system. Cambareri found that female undergraduates

had less interest in becoming police officers than their male counterparts because of the

perceived harassment and disrespect. I would like to show my study to female undergraduate

students because it shows that in smaller departments like Fairfield, the only harassment and

disrespect is occasionally from citizens, not internal. Perhaps my study could encourage more

female undergraduates to consider becoming police officers.

If my study had gotten IRB approval, I would have hoped it would be used as a basis for

future research. I would like to see future research into smaller departments. I was only able to

find one article that was extremely similar to my study, (Seklecki, 2007). This study examined a

lot of the same things I did: experiences of female police officers, what they enjoy about the job,

work conditions, and any harassment they experienced. I would like to see more articles in this

vein, and perhaps they should focus more on female undergraduate criminal justice students,

expanding on Cambareri (2018).

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Cambareri, J. F., & Kuhns, J. B. (2018). Perceptions and perceived challenges associated

with a hypothetical career in law enforcement: differences among male and female

college students. Police Quarterly, 335-357.

Gossett, J. L., & Williams, J. E. (2008). Perceived discrimination among women in law

enforcement. Women & Criminal Justice, 10, 53-73.

Greene, H. T. (2000). Black females in law enforcement: a foundation for future research.

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Guajardo, S. A. (2015). Women in policing: a longitudinal assessment of female officers

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Lonsway, K. A., & Alipio, A. M. (2008). Sex discrimination lawsuits in law

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Schuck, A. M. (2014). Female representation in law enforcement: the influence of

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