{"id":30151,"date":"2022-03-28T04:46:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T04:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/?p=30151"},"modified":"2022-03-28T04:46:00","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T04:46:00","slug":"in-nebraska-a-police-chief-hires-female-officers-to-fix-toxic-policing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/28\/in-nebraska-a-police-chief-hires-female-officers-to-fix-toxic-policing\/","title":{"rendered":"In Nebraska, a police chief hires female officers to fix \u2018toxic\u2019 policing"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Officer Brandy Valdez works a Saturday night shift. She was a house cleaner before becoming a police officer. Washington Post photo by Sarah L. Voisin <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BELLEVUE, Neb. — Officer Karen Wrigley\u2019s pink nails tapped her body camera as she stepped from her cruiser into the cold. \u201cYou want to open up the door?\u201d she asked the middle-aged Black man sitting in a parked minivan. \u201cYou\u2019ve got an arrest warrant.\u201d<\/p>\n

The man had a criminal record for assault and other offenses, had run from Bellevue police before and was wanted for missing a court date for a traffic violation. He had no interest in returning to jail. \u201cThat\u2019s horses— !\u201d he cried, as Wrigley and her colleagues asked him 11 times over 15 minutes to exit the vehicle.<\/p>\n

Wrigley, who is White, never raised her voice. She got on the phone with his lawyer through a cracked-open driver\u2019s-side window – a window she had the right to bash in, given the circumstances. As reality set in, the man smoked two cigarettes and cursed his luck. He finally exited the car, remarking that he was freezing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYep, us, too,\u201d Wrigley said, handcuffing him. \u201cJust to let you know, others aren\u2019t going to be as nice as me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Officer Jess Manning, center, talks about the incident in the parking lot of a restaurant where a mentally ill person was said to have a gun. Washington Post photo by Sarah L. Voisin <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wrigley, 35, is one of a slew of female officers hired over the past year and a half in this suburb south of Omaha, part of a deliberate strategy by Police Chief Ken Clary to reduce the likelihood of misconduct and excess violence on the force.<\/p>\n

Clary, a former Iowa state trooper, believes the research and his own experience, both of which tell him diversity makes for better policing and decreases the use of force against civilians, especially those who are Black. He\u2019s rewritten the department\u2019s rule book and promoted an officer to become head of recruiting, with an eye toward adding more women and police officers of color and making sure they stick around.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s too early to see significant changes in data generated by the 103-officer department. But officers say the personnel efforts have helped usher in a culture shift, which experts say is the key to long-lasting change.<\/p>\n

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Officer Brandy Valdez, 35, works a Saturday night on her 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift. She is taking notes after doing a field sobriety test on a driver. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Sarah L. Voisin <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Outsiders seem to be noticing. This winter, seeking to understand the police hiring climate in a post-George Floyd world, Nebraska Fraternal Order of Police President Jim Maguire asked the state\u2019s 225 law enforcement entities whether recruiting was up or down. Each chief who responded said the number of applicants had shrunk dramatically. Except one: Clary. He told Maguire he had more applicants hoping to police the city of 53,000 than ever before, with officers transferring from departments as far as New Mexico. Many new arrivals were women.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s Wrigley, who was inspired to become a cop as a teenager after watching the 2000 film \u201cMiss Congeniality\u201d; Brandy Valdez, a former ballet dancer and maid who sought her badge after leaving what she calls a \u201cpatriarchal marriage\u201d and has a talent for calming and reassuring victims of sexual assault; Chatelle Ogea, a rookie officer, former social worker and current Army reservist; and Pam Volk, who resolved a recent dispute between a woman and her substance-abusing granddaughter by recounting her own experience living with an alcoholic.<\/p>\n

Bellevue, the third-largest city in Nebraska, is experiencing \u201cthe complete opposite of what everybody else is dealing with,\u201d Maguire said. \u201cI don\u2019t know exactly how Chief Clary is doing it. But whatever magic wand he\u2019s been able to use down there, I would suspect that a bunch of other departments are going to try.\u201d<\/p>\n

A police chief\u2019s evolution<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Officer Chatelle Ogea walks down a hallway lined with photos, mostly of men, who have been honored as the department’s officer of the year. Silhouette placeholders for future honorees suggest that many will be women. Washington Post photo by Sarah L. Voisin <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a captain for the Iowa State Patrol seven years ago, Clary hadn\u2019t given much thought to the dearth of women in policing (nationwide, about 7 percent of state troopers are female). He did notice that the two women under his command drew citizen complaints far less than many of their male peers. In 2016, he attended the National Institute of Justice LEADS Scholars Program in Washington, where he was introduced to a wealth of academic research indicating female officers excel at de-escalation and use force less frequently than male officers.<\/p>\n

Between classes, Clary struck up friendships with Ivonne Roman, a Newark police officer who would go on to be a finalist for New York City police chief earlier this year, and Maureen McGough, an attorney who is chief of staff for the Policing Project at the New York University School of Law. Roman shared with Clary many of the obstacles she faced rising through the ranks in Newark. In a later conversation over lunch, Clary shared with McGough a dawning realization.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looked at me and, out of nowhere, he said, \u2018Mo,\u2019 we have got to figure out how to get the toxic masculinity out of policing,\u2019\u201d she recalled. \u201cAnd it was just like this moment of, \u2018who are you and how do I support you?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Clary was the first police chief to join the\u00a030×30 Initiative<\/a>, launched by McGough, Roman and others a year ago to push police departments to make their rosters at least 30 percent female by 2030. To date, about 150 jurisdictions have signed on, including New York City and, this month,\u00a0D.C.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

But many others have been skeptical. Only seven of the 40 Midwestern law enforcement agencies Clary invited have signed up, McGough said. And during a seminar while the initiative was in the planning stage, a male chief told McGough and other organizers he was reluctant to hire women, for fear they\u2019d be sexually harassed by male officers and sue the department.<\/p>\n

The women in the audience were incredulous.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, not that he needed to address the behavior of the officers, right?\u201d McGough said in an interview. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to deal with the sexual harassment suits that would come from a woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clary was hired in Bellevue to replace a chief who was accused by the police union of sexist attitudes, racism and other misconduct. Mark Elbert retired after being cleared in an internal investigation and now works for the city as community development director. In an email to The Post, he denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n