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Innovation and transparency in the recruitment of

women in Australian Policing

Aiyana Ward, Tim Prenzler & Jacqueline Drew

To cite this article: Aiyana Ward, Tim Prenzler & Jacqueline Drew (2020) Innovation and
transparency in the recruitment of women in Australian Policing, Police Practice and Research,
21:5, 525-540, DOI: 10.1080/15614263.2020.1720955

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2020.1720955

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POLICE PRACTICE AND RESEARCH
2020, VOL. 21, NO. 5, 525–540
https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2020.1720955

ARTICLE

Innovation and transparency in the recruitment of women in

Australian Policing
Aiyana Warda, Tim Prenzlerb and Jacqueline Drewc
a
Tutor, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia; bProfessor of Criminology,
School of Law & Criminology, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Australia; cSenior Lecturer, School of
Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
This paper reviews developments in gender equity-oriented recruitment Women police; female
policies in Australian policing between 2015 and 2019. Findings cover the police; gender equity;
six state, one federal and one territory police departments. The study was affirmative action; equal
employment opportunity;
prompted by media reports on affirmative action initiatives, especially the
recruitment
introduction of recruitment targets. The primary aim was to identify suc-
cessful or promising strategies to increase the number of female officers,
with possible transferable lessons. A secondary aim was to assess the level
of accountability in terms of public reporting by police about methods and
outcomes. The main finding was that four of the eight departments had
introduced explicit 50:50 male-female recruitment targets, and five depart-
ments had been operating female targeted recruitment campaigns. The
majority of departments with targeted campaigns recorded large increases
in female recruit numbers, although within the study time frame only one
showed a clear flow-through to substantially increased officer numbers.
Overall, there was a lack of adequate data, including male-female applica-
tion numbers; and information about selection criteria was inadequate. The
personal commitment and discretion of police commissioners appeared to
be a key factor in the adoption of affirmative action initiatives. These
findings provide valuable lessons for improved police performance and
accountability in gender equity across the world.

Introduction
This study was prompted by reports in the Australian media, beginning in 2015, regarding major
gender equity initiatives in policing, mainly in the areas of recruitment ‘targets’ – including
references to ‘quotas’ – and targeted recruitment campaigns (e.g., Allen & Sibthorpe, 2017;
Foster, 2017; Lillebuen, 2017; Panahi, 2016; Rice, 2015; Webb, 2015). Several Australian police
departments have been seen as leaders in the employment of female police officers at different times,
most notably New South Wales in the 1980s, and Tasmania and Queensland in the 1990s; while
Western Australia and Victoria were notable laggards for many decades (Prenzler, 2015). However,
there was an observable convergence in policies and practices across all eight departments in the
2010s, centred on a fundamental commitment to appointment by merit, non-discrimination and
equality of opportunity. Policies sought to encourage and support women (and other ‘minority’
groups) through fairly passive measures such as inclusive advertising, representative selection
panels, anti-discrimination and anti-harassment rules and training, promotion workshops for
women and flexible employment (Prenzler, 2015; Prenzler & Drew, 2013). More developed

CONTACT Tim Prenzler tprenzler@usc.edu.au Professor of Criminology, School of Law & Criminology, University of the
Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Queensland 4556, Australia
© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
526 A. WARD ET AL.

affirmative action practices – such as intake quotas or targeted advertising – oriented more towards
‘equality of outcomes’, were generally eschewed. Media reports of ‘targets’ and ‘quotas’ therefore
represented a major departure from established conventions. Consequently, the authors decided to
examine public source material about changes to police recruitment policies with the aim of
identifying and explaining the origins, methods and impacts of these changes.

Literature review
Policing has traditionally been a male dominated profession, widely considered to be unsuitable for
women due to the physical aspects and potential dangers of the job (Martin & Jurik, 2007; Silvestri,
2003). Historically, there was extensive resistance to women police, with a very small space opened in
some locations in the early twentieth century. These pioneers gained entry as a result of lobbying
efforts by women’s organisations who, in the main, sought a role for female officers assisting women
and children in contact with the criminal justice system. The first women officers had a very limited
role, primarily in quasi-social work functions or as clerical assistants to male officers: ‘working with
women, children and typewriters’ (Martin, 1990, p. ix). In many cases, the first female officers were
unsworn, received lower pay than males and were denied rank (Walker, 1993). The roles and numbers
of female officers began to expand in the 1940s and 1950s in response to the labour shortage during
World War Two and innovations in policing, such as school road safety. Nonetheless, their contribu-
tions to policing remained severely limited by quotas, and limits such as the exclusion of married
women, often set on a discretionary basis by police managers. The full spectrum of police careers was
not opened to women until the introduction of anti-discrimination and supportive equal opportunity
legislation in different locations mainly from the 1970s (Martin & Jurik, 2007).
In the United States, resistance to equal employment opportunity requirements led to the
imposition of affirmative action measures in some police departments. During the 1980s, these
included court ordered consent decrees mandating quotas for women and minorities (Martin,
1990). These quotas were usually well below parity, such as 20% or 30%. They appeared to have
generated some improvements in overall female sworn numbers. However, the conflict with merit-
based appointment principles, and allegations of ‘tokenism’ against female officers, led to
a preference for more passive forms of affirmative action including more advanced parental leave
benefits, targeted advertising and pre-application orientation classes for women, and mentoring
and leadership programs (Hilal, Densley, & Squier Jones, 2017; Lonsway et al., 2002; Lonsway,
Moore, Harrington, Smeal, & Spiller, 2003; Martin & Jurik, 2007; Ward & Prenzler, 2016). In the
main, these environments appear to have improved female representation across the ranks of police
organisations but still at rates well below parity, with recruit application rates limited to one-third
and overall sworn officer numbers limited to around one-quarter in many cases (Cordner &
Cordner, 2011; Ward & Prenzler, 2016).
Some modified forms of quotas, or near-quotas, have been apparent outside of the United States.
For example, a form of ‘positive discrimination’ in recruitment was utilised in Australia at times in
the 1980s and 1990s by the New South Wales and Queensland police, where ‘limited preferential
selection of female candidates’ was adopted to counter the effects of discriminatory physical tests
(Prenzler, 2015, p. 98). In the New South Wales system, subsequently adopted in Queensland, ‘small
numbers of males at the bottom of the recruitment lists were replaced with recommended female
candidates. The males were given places in the following round. This targeted recruitment of
women saw female recruit numbers gradually increase from 17% in 1989 to 33% in 1993, above
the application rate of 29%’ (p. 98).
Numerical targets represent another form of affirmative action, and there is evidence regarding
their effectiveness in a range of occupations (Broderick, 2016, p. 55). There appears to be very little
evidence about how exactly they work in policing in relation to merit, but they are normally
consistent with equity legislation which permits ‘special measures’ to attract and support minority
groups without violating the merit principle in selection (Brown, Hegarty & O’Neilly, 2006, p. 4).
 POLICE PRACTICE AND RESEARCH 527

While targets might involve some adjustments to selection criteria, such as separate fitness
standards for men and women, they appear to be primarily associated with measures to attract
more female applicants – such as advertising focused on women, women-only information and
orientation sessions, and female mentoring (Home Office, 2010). These measures provide a form of
‘signalling’ to women that they are not just tolerated but sought after (Hilal et al., 2017). Oversight
committees and public reporting of outcomes and benchmarking also serve to keep pressure on
managers to achieve targets (Broderick, 2016; Home Office, 2010; Laverick & Cain, 2015). However,
support for women has often waxed and waned with different police chiefs, so that what is needed is
a consistent and sustainable approach to gender equity best delivered through a government-based
framework to avoid cycles of reform and regression (Prenzler, 2004).
South Africa, and England and Wales, appear to have been the main sites of practice in regard to
targets for women police. In England and Wales, the Gender Agenda developed by the British
Association of Women Police encouraged chief constables to adopt targets, and the Home Office
reported in 2010 that ‘almost all of the 43 Police Authorities have now set local gender and ethnicity
recruitment targets’ (Home Office, 2010, p. 17). Laverick and Cain (2015) reported that explicit
targets had subsequently been abandoned in response to large cuts to policing budgets. Nonetheless,
continuation of a range of supportive mechanisms appears to have contributed to a steady increase
in female officer numbers in England and Wales, reaching 30% in 2018 (Library House of
Commons, 2018, p. 9). An international survey by Ward and Prenzler (2016) identified five high
performing police departments in diverse areas of gender equity including three in England and
Wales. These were North Wales, with female recruit numbers above 50%; Cumbria and Surrey, with
more that 33% female sworn officers; and Hertfordshire, with more than 33% women at senior
officer ranks. The South African Police Service has been particularly successful in promoting
women to senior ranks through a combination of targets, mentoring programs and quotas in
leadership training programs. Ward and Prenzler found that women made up 34.8% of ‘senior
management’ and 37.5% of ‘top management’ positions in 2015 (2016, p. 247).
Despite examples of significant progress in gender equity in policing, the field is marked by
enormous variation, with many police departments in the 2010s still having less than one quarter
female representation, with some as low as 5% (Brown, Prenzler, & van Ewijk, 2014; Cordner &
Cordner, 2011; Prenzler & Sinclair, 2013). Very small numbers of women at the higher ranks are in
part a product of low numbers at the intake point. Consequently, there is a compelling case for the
development of a stronger evidence base about what works in increasing and sustaining women’s
contributions to police work, including the role of recruitment targets and targeted recruitment
campaigns. The case is strengthened by evidence indicating that female officers have a stronger
service orientation and are much less reliant on force than male officers, at a time when police
violence remains a headline problem (Lonsway et al., 2003; Schuck & Rabe-Hemp, 2007). In
addition, employing women in policing in both developed and developing countries provides
women with significantly enhanced economic independence, including into retirement (Bastick,
2014; United Nations Development Program, 2007).

Materials and methods

As noted, this study was prompted by media reports of gender equity initiatives centred on 50:50
male-female recruit intakes in Australian police departments, beginning in 2015 (e.g., Allen &
Sibthorpe, 2017; Courier Mail, 2016; Foster, 2017; Lillebuen, 2017; Panahi, 2016; Rice, 2015; Webb,
2015). The study aimed to assess developments across the eight departments with a view to
identifying innovations designed to improve recruitment; as well as assessing the quality of
information about policies, practices and outcomes in official public reports. The model of best
practice which has emerged from the policing literature emphasises a data-driven approach to
gender issues which uses quantitative measures to both diagnose obstacles to women’s utilisation
and advancement, and also provide public accountability. Scholars such as Jones (1986) and Martin
528 A. WARD ET AL.

(1990) pioneered the study of gender in police organisations by measuring male and female ratios
across the crucial career gateposts of recruitment, academy graduation, assignment, promotion and
retention; as well as using survey data to assess the extent to which women experience discrimina-
tion and harassment (Prenzler & Hayes, 2000). These categories also served as a framework for
assessing the effects of interventions in an action research process which should involve account-
ability to the public through detailed reports.
With the above in mind, the present study proceeded as an audit-style survey of police depart-
ments, primarily by accessing and searching departmental websites, using keyword searches; and
accessing and searching key documents held at departmental websites including annual reports,
policy statements, special reports (such as inquiry reports) and press releases. Searches were also
conducted within the media database Factiva.com and in online parliamentary debates. Typical
keywords included ‘gender equity’, ‘police women’, ‘female recruits’, ‘recruitment quotas’ and
‘equity targets’. The main search parameters were set from 2015 to 2018, given that police annual
reports in Australia cover the period July 1 to June 30. However, searches were extended back to
2014 where possible, in order to cover the year before the initiatives were first reported. Media and
parliamentary sessions to June 30 2019 were also included to achieve data recency. The results
section below reports separately on each jurisdiction. The authors plan to follow up on the findings
with more detailed investigations seeking data directly from departments. The present paper
therefore serves as a scoping study, while also evaluating the quality of public reporting.

Results
New South Wales
The New South Wales Police Force annual reports do not include a gender breakdown of recruits or
sworn police officers by overall numbers or rank. The most recent figure available at the department’s
website was for 2014, contained in a brief historical review, which reported 26.9% sworn female
officers (NSW Police Force, 2019a). Overall, no information was found on recent gender recruitment
initiatives and very little in terms of support for female officers. The annual reports include an
appendix on ‘Equal Employment Opportunity’. These listed a target of 50% women in the total staff
profile, but with no information about how this would be achieved (e.g., NSW Police Force, 2015,
p. 84; 2018, p. 82). The appendix in the 2017–18 annual report made reference to a Women in Policing
Strategic Plan 2015–2018, but without elaboration and the document is not publicly accessible.
A section of the recruitment webpage is titled ‘Women in Policing: A Career for Women in the
New South Wales Police’ (NSW Police Force, 2019b). It encourages women to apply for recruitment,
and claims that ‘on the national level, the NSW Police Force has the highest representation of women
within its ranks’. It refers to ‘flexible working arrangements for females including Family and
Community Service Leave, Personal Carer’s Leave, Parental Leave, support for breastfeeding mothers,
and leave without pay’. There is also a phone number to speak to ‘a female Police Recruitment
Officer’. In 2016, in response to a question in state parliament, the Police Minister stated that the
Force ‘is committed to ongoing improved recruitment, retention, development and promotion of
women within the NSWPF and implements this via strategies in the Women in Policing Strategic Plan
2015-2018ʹ – without any detail on methods nor outcomes other than to put the percentage of female
recruits at 29% each year from 2010 to 2015 (Parliament of New South Wales, 2016, p. 2282).

Queensland
The Queensland Police Service Annual Statistical Review, located at the Service website, provided
personnel data, including gender ratios by recruits and rank, for many years. However, from 2018
onwards, the main crime data were shifted to a state government website minus the personnel data.
Consequently, personnel statistics in the time frame for the present study were only available to 2017.
 POLICE PRACTICE AND RESEARCH 529

In January 2016, Police Commissioner Ian Stewart introduced ‘an aspirational recruitment target
of 50% female recruit appointments’, announced on International Women’s Day (Queensland Police
Service, 2018, p. 78). In state parliament, the Police Minister referred to ‘the Police Commissioner’s
aspirational target’, and commended the Commissioner for ‘initiating and taking on this challenge’,
indicating that the policy was a discretionary decision emanating personally from the Commissioner
(Queensland Parliament, 2016, p. 2022). The action might have occurred in response to a drop in
recruit numbers from 31.8% in 2014 to 19.5% in mid-2015 (Table 1). At the same time, the initiative
was consistent with the Queensland Women’s Strategy 2016–21, introduced by a new state government
elected in 2015, focused on improving participation by women in the workforce and better gender
representation across government (Queensland Government, 2019).
The recruitment target was supported by a tailored recruitment campaign, as outlined in the
2017–18 Annual Report (Queensland Police Service, 2018, p. 78):

To assist in achieving this [50%] target, a recruitment marketing strategy entitled ‘That Could Be Me’ was
implemented in 2016, showcasing the ‘stories’ of successful female QPS police officers from diverse back-
grounds and policing roles. In mid-2018, a new marketing strategy ‘My Story’ will be launched, this time not
only to specifically attract female applicants, but also applicants from CALD [Culturally And Linguistically
Diverse] and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds.

It appears that these campaigns were primarily operationalised through the Service’s social media
outlets (Queensland Parliament, 2019, p. 2117). A 2019 version, titled ‘My story, what’s yours’,
featured three female officers and two male officers from a range of policing fields talking positively
about their experiences (p. 2117).
The new target appeared to have a dramatic effect on male-female recruit ratios. In Parliament,
the Minister reported that the recruit intake in March 2016 was 52% female and 50% in May 2016
(Queensland Parliament, 2016, p. 2022). Table 1, drawing on data from the Service’s Statistical
Review, shows slightly lesser outcomes on an annualised basis. There was an increase from 19.5%
female recruits in 2015 to 46.8% in 2016 and 48.3% in 2017. Table 1 also shows that, given the small
number of recruits each year in relation to total strength, there was no strong flow through effect
into the overall officer proportions, with only a small, but nonetheless encouraging, increase in the
percentage of sworn female officers.
Official reports were unclear about the exact mechanisms for achieving the 50:50 target, particu-
larly in terms of any potential adjustments to a ranked order of merit for applicants subject to a battery
of tests. One newspaper reported that the Police Union President supported the ‘new direction’ on the
condition that ‘the requirements were not relaxed in an effort to attract more women into the job’ (in
Akers, 2016, p. 6). According to the report, the Commissioner ‘confirmed that standards would not be
changed’ (p. 6). However, another newspaper report ridiculed the claim, describing the policy as ‘a
quota system’ and alleging that standards would need to be lowered to achieve the objective (Panahi,
2016, p. 22). Commentators also criticised the government’s inconsistency in supporting the target for
police but not for other minority groups and not in other work areas, including female dominated
fields such as nursing and teaching (Courier Mail, 2016, p. 54).
In 2017, a newspaper reported that ‘the service is struggling to attract enough women to maintain
[Commissioner Stewart’s] 50–50 gender recruitment target’ (Murray, 2017, p. 11). Although 205

Table 1. Male-female recruits and sworn officers, Queensland, 2014–2017.

Recruits Sworn Officers
Year* Males Females (F%) Males Females (F%)
2014 107 50 (31.8%) 8,545 3,060 (26.4%)
2015 235 57 (19.5%) 8,541 3,042 (26.3%)
2016 50 44 (46.8%) 8,772 3,105 (26.1%)
2017 46 43 (48.3%) 8,679 3,201 (26.9%)
Sources: (Queensland Police Service, 2015, p. 152; 2016, p. 172, 2017, p. 178). * June 30.
530 A. WARD ET AL.

females and 194 males were recruited up to March of 2017, the Commissioner claimed ‘it’s getting
more difficult . . . If we don’t have enough we won’t change the standard and we’ll have more male
applicants than women in the recruit program. I think that will happen at times’ (in Murray, 2017,
p. 11). The Commissioner attributed lower female application rates in part to ‘the physical nature of
the organisation’ and negative portrayals of police work (p. 11). He also expressed concern about
potential drop out rates: ‘The 24-hour shifts and 365 days a year work all take a toll on people and
particularly women who are the primary raiser(s) of families. We need to provide flexible work
arrangements for them to stay within the organisation and to balance work and their life responsi-
bilities’ (p. 11). In 2019, a new Commissioner, Katarina Carroll – the first female police Commissioner
in the state – reportedly said ‘she would review the [50–50] system to see if changes were needed’
(Courier Mail, 2019, p. 7). Carroll had served a period as Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner
where she sought to improve an extremely poor gender ratio and combat institutionalised sexism, but
was reportedly ‘against setting quotas there’ and ‘would not make it easier for women to pass
recruitment tests to boost numbers’ (Chamberlin, 2018, pp. 7 &, p. 5).

South Australia
The South Australia Police personnel figures were included in the annual reports until 2016. From
2017 they have been located in personnel information summaries available online as separate
documents. These sources include a rank and gender breakdown along with recruitment figures.
In mid-2015, Grant Stevens was appointed as South Australia Police Commissioner. Within
a short time, at the end of 2015, he announced a 50:50 recruitment program beginning in 2016. This
was accompanied by a media campaign to promote policing to women, including profiling female
officers on social media and running information seminars for women (Equal Opportunity
Commission, 2016, p. 49). The initiative was part of a larger reform program to create ‘a values-
driven culture’ and ‘new levels of organisational harmony and sustainability’, including a focus on
removing all obstacles to gender equity (South Australia Police, 2016, p. 3). As in the Queensland
case, these moves appeared to be a discretionary initiative of the Commissioner’s and may have
been prompted in part by a drop in the proportion of female sworn officers in 2015 (Table 2). In his
foreword to the 2015–16 Annual Report, Commissioner Stevens stated, ‘in January 2016,
I introduced gender parity in the recruitment of sworn staff, as a positive step forward for an
organisation more reflective of the wider community it serves’ (South Australia Police, 2016, p. 3).
In April 2016, Stevens requested a review of gender issues in the Department by the Equal
Opportunity Commission. The main finding was that sex discrimination and sexual harassment
were major pervasive problems in the department, and the report noted that the department had
difficulty attracting female applicants (Equal Opportunity Commission, 2016).
Table 2 shows the apparent immediate effect of the parity policy, with the proportion of female
cadets increasing from 31.6% in 2015 to 43.9% in 2016, 49.9% in 2017 and 51.3% in 2018. In
contrast to the Queensland case above, there appeared to be a larger flow-on effect to the

Table 2. Male-female cadets and sworn officers, South Australia, 2014–2018.

Cadets Sworn Officers**
Year* Males Females (F%) Males Females (F%)
2014 59 21 (26.3%) 3,456 1,290 (27.2%)
2015 78 36 (31.6%) 3,404.5 1,163.9 (25.5%)
2016 87 68 (43.9%) 3,370.9 1,178.8 (25.9%)
2017 170 169 (49.9%) 3,337.1 1,231.2 (27.0%)
2018 95 100 (51.3%) 3,371.5 1,379.6 (29.0%)
Sources: (South Australia Police, 2014, p. 34; 2015, p. 28, 2016, p. 31, 2017, p. 1, 2018b, p. 1). *
June 30. ** Includes Probationary Constables and Community Constables. Note: Numbers are
full-time equivalent 2015 to 2018.
 POLICE PRACTICE AND RESEARCH 531

proportion of sworn women police: increasing from 25.5% in 2015 to 29.0% in 2018. This could
be accounted for by the larger number of cadets in the latter years and smaller overall sworn
officer numbers.
As in the Queensland case above, the means of achieving parity in recruitment, especially in
relation to the principle of appointment by merit, was not clearly identifiable from the documents
accessed for the present study. In state parliament, the Minister was questioned about the process,
including an adverse reference to ‘the adjustment of the physical standards to be more female-
friendly’ (Parliament of South Australia, 2016, p. 4275). The Minister expressed full government
support for the policy, and referred to ‘a multipronged approach’ to achieving overall parity,
including flexible work options to keep women in the job (p. 4275). The Minister also referred to
an increase in applications from women (p. 4275):
prior to the commissioner’s fifty-fifty announcement, the percentage of female applicants who were applying
for jobs within SAPOL was running at around about 30 per cent of the overall intake. Since the announcement
made by the police commissioner for a fifty-fifty target, the percentage of female applicants has increased to
42 per cent.

Police reports eschewed the term ‘quota’, referring to the ‘50/50 gender equity policy for SAPOL
recruiting’ and the ‘50/50 gender target’ (South Australia Police, 2018a, p. 8) – although one
newspaper quoted the Commissioner as saying, ‘I am confident this quota can be achieved without
dropping standards’ (in Rice, 2015, p. 4). The Equal Opportunity Commissioner was quoted in the
media as saying that, ‘Setting a 50–50 recruitment quota will significantly increase the “pipeline” of
future female leaders’ (in Rice, 2016, p. 4).
The Equal Opportunity Commission (2016) report supported the recruitment policy, but
warned that more supportive strategies would need to be implemented to keep women in the job
and ensure their welfare. It also noted that ‘SAPOL’s new 50:50 recruitment policy has been
controversial, both among its own employees and in the community’ (2016, p. 50). The report
included findings from a member survey commissioned by the Police Association in 2016. It found
that ‘86 per cent of respondents opposed the new gender parity recruitment policy’ (with no gender
breakdown included) (2016, p. 5). The Association report is not publicly available. The Equal
Opportunity Commission’s own survey results showed that, ‘Significantly more males were likely to
mention sexual discrimination towards males created by the 50:50 policy (24 per cent vs 5 per cent
of females)’ (p. 50). In addition, ‘Many survey respondents and interviewees made reference to
a backlash from the 50:50 policy on women currently employed within SAPOL as well as its newest
recruits’ (p. 50). Examples included the following (p. 50):
“I think there’s a lot of negative information coming out, particularly from the Academy, that these women
that have been put into these positions from the 50:50 actually didn’t make the grade. These poor women are
targeted and labelled as having been selected purely because of their gender rather than their merit. This belief
needs to be addressed.” Confidential Interviewee

“50:50 has made things so much worse for women. We are now like a charity case. We were told . . . we were
‘only there because the fitness level for women has been lowered (cough cough) I mean changed’.”
Confidential interviewee.

In a media report, The Police Association was critical of what it called ‘the imposition of the “rigid”
policy, which it says dictates that gender is more important than ability when selecting new officers’,
with the President expressing concern that women ‘left on average after 7–8 years of service’ (in
Rice, 2016, p. 3).

Tasmania
In Tasmania, accurate numbers of male and female sworn officers and male and female trainees
were not available in annual reports until 2017. Table 3 reports the data for 2017 and 2018, showing
532 A. WARD ET AL.

Table 3. Male-female trainees and sworn officers, Tasmania, 2014–2018.

Trainees Sworn Officers
Year* Males Females (F%) Males Females (F%)
2017 10 10 (50.0%) 854 398 (31.8%)
2018 10 15 (60.0%) 864 415 (32.4%)
Sources: (Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management, 2017, p. 57; 2018, p. 67). *
June 30.

50.0% female trainees and 31.8% female sworn officers in 2017 and 60.0% female trainees and 32.4%
female sworn officers in 2018. However, a Ministerial press release referred to a February 2016
recruit induction ceremony and the Police Minister’s praise for ‘the diversity of new recruits, with
an equal number of men and women’ (Australian Government News, 2016).
Annual reports for 2015 to 2016 make no mention of gender equity programs. The 2016–17
report included a separate heading ‘Gender Diversity in the Tasmanian State Service’ (Department
of Police, Fire and Emergency Management, 2017, p. 56), with the following contextual information
provided in relation to police recruitment:

The State Service has a commitment to achieve 50/50 gender diversity in the senior executive, with at least 40%
female by 2020 . . . Across the total number of staff, the gender profile is 61/39 and in the senior executive it is
71/29. DPFEM is committed to creating and promoting a working environment that recognises and embraces
gender diversity. The Department acknowledges that a diverse workforce that is reflective of the community
enables better service delivery and opportunity to draw on different perspectives. The Corporate Management
Group has undertaken unconscious bias training and the Department has formed a Gender Diversity
Working Group, with representatives from all arms of DPFEM. This Group provides advice and strategies
on achieving gender balance in the senior executive and all workplaces. Police recruiting also has a focus on
gender diversity. Recruitment has been reviewed and recruit training courses now have predominantly a 50/50
gender representation. This change is beginning to be reflected in promotions throughout sworn ranks.
DPFEM State Service recruitment policies are reflective of whole-of-government practice.

The 2018 annual report reiterated this situation, and added information about the gender-focused
police recruitment campaign (Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management, 2018, p. 27):

In 2017-18, the Department reviewed recruitment strategies with the aim of increasing the number of
applicants from more diverse backgrounds. Strategies to increase diversity have included the development
of a recruitment campaign to encourage more women to apply to join Tasmania Police. The campaign, which
was themed ‘You got this’, encouraged women to project themselves into the role of a police officer. There has
been a significant increase in female applicants since the campaign launched.

One newspaper report attributed a degree of responsibility for gender parity in recruitment to the
Police Commissioner Darren Hine and a senior female officer in the department: ‘Mr Hine deserves
credit for helping to create a culture embracing of women. So too do officers like Donna Adams who
is now the deputy secretary of the Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management’ (The
Advocate, 2018).
The official reports by the Tasmania police accessed for this study did not use the terms ‘target’
nor ‘quota’. One document at the Recruitment and Training website attributed increased female
recruit numbers to the publicity campaign: ‘In the first two weeks of the campaign, applications
from women increased by 700%. Of 161 applications received in the period, 109 were from women’
(Tasmania Police, 2018). The website provided further information about the recruitment strategy:

The campaign imagery shows confident and competent police women and is designed to encourage women to
ask themselves whether they have the attributes that policing requires . . . As well as Facebook graphics and
other online content, a series of short video clips provide a glimpse into the real world of four police officers,
exploring their motivations and thoughts on their work.
 POLICE PRACTICE AND RESEARCH 533

Victoria
The Victoria Police annual reports include male-female numbers for both sworn officers and recruits.
Table 4 shows that female recruit numbers peaked at 49.5% in 2015 and then dropped to 29.8% in 2018.
In the same period, female sworn office numbers increased slightly from 26.3% in 2015 to 27.9% in 2018.
The official police publications accessed for the present study did not identify female recruitment targets.
One 2017 newspaper report stated that ‘Assistant Police Commissioner Luke Cornelius said the force . . .
had failed to reach the target of 50 per cent female recruits and would launch a new advertising campaign
to try to achieve balance’ (Silvester, 2017, p. 1). It was also ‘reviewing recruit medical and fitness
requirements that discriminated against women’ (p. 1). The comments occurred in the context of
a story on the effects of a damning 2015 report on chronic sex discrimination and sexual harassment in
the Force, which included criticism of a discriminatory fitness test in recruitment (Victorian Equal
Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, 2015). The report supported the adoption of a 50:50
recruitment target and targeted female recruitment campaigns; and recommended a review of recruit-
ment processes, including physical entry standards (pp. 31, 161–163, 349).
Police Commissioner Graham Ashton was reported in the media as being committed to imple-
menting all the recommendations of the Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission report
(Silvester, 2015, p. 6). However, the available public source material was unclear on the currency of
a 50:50 target. According to the 2018 Victoria Police Annual Report there was a Gender Equality
Strategy and Action Plan 2017–2020 in place (Victoria Police, 2018, p. 30), although this was not
publicly available. In 2017, The Age newspaper reported that ‘One of Victoria’s biggest-ever police
recruitment campaigns has been rolled out – and there’s no mistaking the inclusion of an important
group of people: women.’ (in Lillebuen, 2017, p. 1). The report went on to state that:
women are featured prominently throughout the social media and television ad campaign promoting the
undertaking.

There’s footage of women in police training, interviews with women on the job, and images of women in
uniform chatting with basketball players, reuniting a child with her worried mother, and even suited up in
heavy-duty police body armour.

Reference was also made to the Force’s first ever ‘women’s career fair’ and a review of ‘why women
weren’t applying for roles in policing’ (p 1). A 2019 media report titled ‘Victoria Police’s recruit-
ment campaign targets women’ referred to an extension of the above campaign ‘across free-to-air,
digital, social, print, radio and outdoor channels’ (AdNews, 2019).

Western Australia
The Western Australia Police Force annual reports include figures for male-female sworn officer
numbers but not for recruits. The overall female percentage increased slightly from 22.5% in 2015 to
22.8% in 2018 (1,622/5,186) (Western Australia Police Force, 2018, p. 168; includes Auxiliary and
Liaison officers). According to the 2017 Annual Report, the department had begun work on
a ‘Gender Equality Strategy’, without further information on recruitment (Western Australia
Police Force, 2017, p. 7). The media and parliamentary searches conducted for the present study
did not yield further information.

Table 4. Male-female recruits and sworn officers, Victoria Police, 2014–2018.

Cadets Sworn Officers**
Year* Males Females (F%) Males Females (F%)
2014 183 82 (30.9%) 9,826 3,413 (25.8%)
2015 54 53 (49.5%) 9,903 3,537 (26.3%)
2016 65 44 (40.4%) 9,836 3,627 (26.9%)
2017 101 51 (33.6%) 9,983 3,528 (26.1%)
2018 167 71 (29.8%) 10,573 4,089 (27.9%)
Sources: (Victoria Police, 2014, p. 72; 2015, p. 79, 2016, p. 72, 2017, p. 46, 2018, p. 43). * June 30.
** Includes full-time and part-time officers.
534 A. WARD ET AL.

Australian Federal Police

The Australian Federal Police annual reports include numbers for male and female officers but
without a gender breakdown for recruits. The reports show a small increase in the proportion of
sworn female officers from 21.8% in 2015 to 23.6% in 2018 (792/2,569) (Australian Federal Police,
2015, p. 188; 2018, p. 189). In late-2014, Andrew Colvin was appointed Commissioner. Within
a year of his appointment, Colvin set new gender diversity targets, including ‘50% female total
workforce representation within ten years’ and 35% for sworn female officers in the same period
(Australian Federal Police, 2016, p. 91). In addition, the Commissioner ordered an independent
review titled, Cultural Change: Gender Diversity and Inclusion in the Australian Federal Police
(Broderick, 2016). The review found significant problems of sex discrimination and sexual harass-
ment, significant underrepresentation of female officers, and low and stagnant numbers of female
recruits – stuck around 24% since 2010 (p. 54).
Among other things, the ‘Broderick Report’ expressed strong support for the Commissioner’s
targets and recommended a recruitment campaign targeting women (p. 54):
This includes involving Police women in the recruitment process, showcasing successful Police women and
the breadth of career opportunities available in the AFP, and making visible the AFP’s commitment to gender
equality and the increased representation of women.

The report also provided the following account of a 50%+ target in recruitment (Broderick,
2016, p. 55):
In November 2015, the Commissioner set a target of 50% women across the organisation. He mandated that
the minimum of 50% participation in all recruitment actions and development programs must be exceeded for
intakes of new recruit classes for Police and PSO [Protective Service Officer] so as to achieve the overall 50%
gender balance workforce objective.

In addition, the report recommended consideration of lateral entry (directly into higher ranks) and
easier re-entry options for female officers (p. 90).
In September 2017, the media reported that the Federal Police had announced a ‘female-only
recruitment round’ in an attempt to accelerate female representation amongst sworn officers (Allen &
Sibthorpe, 2017). It was also reported that more than half of the previous graduating group were women,
although the number was not published. Also in September, a recruitment page was set up on Facebook
titled ‘We’re recruiting! Yes, again’, with a clear focus on women (Australian Federal Police, 2017).
The AFP needs more women in its ranks. We need a better gender balance – with our ultimate goal being a 50/
50 representation of men and women. This is because we need to be representative of the community we serve.

As a result, for this recruitment round, we are unashamedly targeting women.

We’re looking for smart women. Agile women. Keen women. Women who want to take advantage of the
unique opportunities we provide to work both in Australia and overseas. Women who want great career
opportunities and an exciting future.

If this is you, join our Facebook group, check out our website, give us a call or drop us an email. If you like
what you see, now’s the time to apply.

As in the cases above, the relationship between targets and merit was not made clear in the available
documents. News of the all-female class ‘caused a major backlash online’ (Foster, 2017): ‘Shortly after
Thursday’s announcement on Facebook that the AFP was “unashamedly targeting women” the angry
comments came flooding in by the thousands’. Comments alleged reverse sexism and a reduction in
standards, although some comments were supportive. The Police reportedly provided assurances that
‘all applicants go through the same process and would only be hired if they meet professional
standards’ (Foster, 2017). Acting Commissioner Leanne Close was quoted as saying the focus was
on marketing in order to attract sufficient suitable female applicants. Some federal Police staff
interviewed for the review expressed concern about targets compromising merit (p. 55):
 POLICE PRACTICE AND RESEARCH 535

There is a view, particularly by men, but also some women, that strategies to increase the representation of
women, including the introduction of targets, are unfair and will undermine merit.

Some women fear a backlash regarding any perceptions that they may receive so-called ‘preferential
treatment.’

However, the review argued that the present concept of merit within the department was narrow
and biased in favour of male networks – a view supported in a staff survey – and that the
recruitment (and promotion) system needed to adopt a broader concept of merit more appropriate
to police work and wholistic management of a police organisation (Chapter 3).

Northern Territory
The Northern Territory Police Fire and Emergency Service annual reports do not record the
numbers of male and female police recruits and sworn officers. In 2015, Reece Kershaw was
appointed Commissioner. In the same year, he announced ‘a new 50/50 recruitment target that
creates and encourages a gender balance within the agency’ (Northern Territory Police, Fire and
Emergency Services, 2016a, p. 6). In the media, the new policy was reported as also being aimed at
reducing domestic violence: ‘Women, particularly Aboriginal women, are being encouraged to join
the NT police as part of a drive to eliminate gender inequality in the force and reduce domestic
violence’ (AAP, 2015). In 2016, a Diversity and Inclusion Strategy was launched aimed at supporting
a diverse workforce. Strategies included flexible employment options and ‘aim(ing) for 50/50
gender balance for recruitment courses across the NTPFES’ (2016b., p. 6) – although the mechan-
ism for achieving this was not specified. The 2016 Annual Report noted that, ‘The most recent Police
Constable Recruit Squad to commence in our College consisted of 43% women’ (2016a, p. 6).
The 2018 Annual Report contained a more detailed description of gender inclusion strategies.
A review was conducted of police recruitment which indicated processes ‘were favouring the young
caucasian male cohort, which is not indicative of the Northern Territory community’ (Northern
Territory Police Fire and Emergency Service, 2018, p. 110). Consequently, a range of changes was
made, including the following (2018, p. 110):

● training of recruitment staff to include recognising and treating unconscious bias

● interchanging interview panels to treat inadvertent conscious or unconscious bias
● redesigning the pre-employment test from a rigid unsuitable test to the Fit For Purpose Test
(FFPT)
● changing the chronology of testing regime with written and psychometric tests placed first
(this was implemented to recognise suitable employees with suitable soft skill sets compared to
the previous arrangements, where those employees after failing the physical test would not be
included in the written test)
● rewriting the application pack, including more inclusive language to encourage female and
culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) applicants
● internal recruitment processes saw the delegation to reject applications scaled back to the
Superintendent, which saw greater accountability placed on the recruitment staff to justify the
reasons for non-acceptance
● continuous and meaningful community engagement, which included presentations and focus
groups to break down the psychological barriers, which highlighted inclusiveness . . .

These innovations were considered to have contributed to ‘an increase in female, ATSI (Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander) and CALD applicants being successfully recruited. In some squads,
a 50:50 gender balance was achieved’ (2018, p. 110). In 2017–18, 73 women were recruited,
comprising 44% of the intake (p. 117).
536 A. WARD ET AL.

The issue of merit was canvassed briefly in the media. The Police Association President told The
Northern Territory News that the Association ‘supports the Commissioner of Police’s aspiration to
increase the recruitment of females to the Northern Territory Police Force’, but noted that all
appointments ‘should be awarded on merit’ (in Roberts, 2016, p. 7). A police spokesperson, ‘Told
the NT News there had been “no dropping of standards”’, and added that, ‘What we are focusing on
is increasing the number of female applicants to NT Police . . . Historically we’ve had more
applications from males than females so we’re trying to encourage more females to see policing
as a career’ (in Roberts, 2016, p. 7).

Discussion
The results of this review of gender-oriented recruitment policies and practices in Australian
policing identified an unexpected shift from relatively passive equality of opportunity approaches
to affirmative action. This shift began in 2015 and continued into 2019. The main innovations
occurred in the adoption of 50:50 male-female targets in recruitment – associated with broader
long-range staff equity targets across police departments – and the adoption of targeted recruitment
campaigns. As shown in Table 5, the available evidence showed that three of the eight departments
explicitly adopted both recruitment targets and targeted campaigns: Queensland, South Australia
and the Federal Police. A 50% recruitment target was cited in relation to the Victoria Police but
could not be confirmed, although there was clear evidence of a recruitment campaign. With the
addition of the Tasmania Police, there was evidence that a total of five departments had actioned
targeted female recruit advertising campaigns. Despite the lack of clear evidence, it was difficult not
to believe that Tasmania had not adopted recruitment targets and that the Northern Territory had
not engaged in some form of female-focused advertising campaigns. The Northern Territory
certainly reported that it had modified its recruitment processes to attract more women and
improve access. Overall, all departments made public commitments to upgraded support mechan-
isms for female officers.
Gauging the effects of these innovations was difficult. Only South Australia and Victoria
published male-female recruit and sworn officer numbers from 2014 to 2018. Queensland published
these from 2014 to 2017. (Data on Indigenous and ethnic minority women was also lacking across
jurisdictions.) In most cases therefore, declarations about agency commitments to gender equity
were at odds with the supply of data. This is a common problem internationally in assessing the
status of women police and the impact of gender equity initiatives (Cordner & Cordner, 2011;
Prenzler & Sinclair, 2013). Of note in the present study was the fact that the researchers were unable
to identify why the New South Wales Police, once a leader in affirmative action for women police,
with Australia’s largest force, appeared to have reduced its commitment to gender equity and to
transparency in public accounting on gender issues in policing.
South Australia was the stand out department in terms of evidence of an impact on recruit
numbers from the new program – reaching 51.3% in 2018 – and also in evidence of a flow-through
effect from recruit numbers to sworn officer numbers – the latter increasing from 25.5% in 2015 to
29.0% in 2018. Queensland showed clear signs of a large increase in recruit numbers – from 19.5%

Table 5. Summary Findings.

Department Female Recruitment Target Female Targeted Advertising Campaign
New South Wales × ×
Queensland ✓ ✓
South Australia ✓ ✓
Tasmania ? ✓
Victoria ? ✓
Western Australia × ×
Australian Federal Police ✓ ✓
Northern Territory ✓ ?
 POLICE PRACTICE AND RESEARCH 537

in 2015 to 48.3% in 2017 – and signs of the beginnings of a possible flow on effect to sworn
numbers – from 26.3% in 2015 to 26.9% in 2017. Tasmania was the stand out agency in terms of the
highest female recruit intake and overall numbers, at 60.0% and 32.4% respectively in 2018.
However, the antecedents of this achievement could not be traced back past 2017, with only recent
evidence regarding recruitment drives. In Victoria, recruit numbers went backwards from an
unexplained high of 49.5% in 2015 to 29.8% in 2018. At the same time, overall numbers increased
slightly from 26.3% to 27.9% in the same period, probably assisted by the earlier recruit figures. The
apparent absence of a target in Western Australia might account, at least in part, for the very low
female sworn officer rate of 22.8% in 2018.
The limited evidence available to-date from the present study showed that recruitment targets were
partially achieved, fully achieved and exceeded in different locations at different times. The relation-
ship between targets and merit was a recurring issue in the findings, as it is in the wider literature (e.g.,
Brown et al., 2006). As noted, the full range of mechanisms for meeting targets was generally not
articulated in published source material, and this included the issue of possible adjustments to rank
ordered lists of applicants. In some cases, the announcement of targets triggered controversy in the
media, with concerns expressed about modifications to competitive criteria. This concern was also
expressed by some male and female police officers in surveys in South Australia and in the Federal
Police. Some women were concerned about being perceived as less than competent as a consequence
of targets. A number of commissioners or spokespersons insisted that standards would not be
compromised, and that the chief mechanism was increased female applications triggered by targeted
recruitment campaigns. There was some very limited evidence to support this view from South
Australia and Tasmania, where increased applicant numbers were partially reported – although
only Tasmania reported more female applicants than male applicants.
Without crucial long-term data on male-female application rates it was impossible to system-
atically analyse the effects of the recruitment campaigns. Although the term ‘quota’ was used at
times, there was no evidence of a strict quota being applied regardless of merit. It is possible that, at
least in some cases, a ‘quota’ of 50% women was taken from a pool of applicants who passed
a standard test battery, and this may have entailed pushing some women up the rank order and
pushing some men down. Nonetheless, references to reviews of recruitment criteria, and at least two
reports of adjusted physical tests, indicated that broader criteria, possibly related to ‘soft skills’ like
communication, may have been introduced as well (cf., Broderick, 2016, Chapter, p. 3).
A final issue concerned the sources of the changes observed in recruitment policies. The main
findings supported the view that individual police chiefs are frequently the instigators of major reforms
supporting women and, more broadly, that police leaders frequently hold enormous discretion in
relation to human resource policies (Prenzler, 2004). Equity legislation has been crucial to the
advancement of women police, and all Australian jurisdictions have had equity legislation requiring
management support for women in the public sector for several decades (Prenzler, 2004). However, top
managers appear to have had significant discretion in how equity legislation is interpreted in practice. In
the six cases of innovation reported here, the primary responsibility for change appeared to lie with the
commissioner. The actions occurred within the framework of a renewed government drive on equity,
but the evidence still showed significant individual initiative. In three cases – South Australia, the
Federal Police and the Northern Territory – the commissioners were newly appointed. In the
Queensland case, a change of government might have provided an opportunity for an established
commissioner to take more radical action, along with the impetus of a drop in female recruit numbers.
The problem, of course, is that these champions of equity will move on sooner or later, so that a whole
of government approach would most likely better serve the sustainability of gender equity programs.

Conclusion
This overview of recent gender equity initiatives in recruitment in Australian policing has high-
lighted some promising developments. Recruitment targets and targeted recruitment campaigns
538 A. WARD ET AL.

were the main innovations identified. However, these appeared to have been introduced in the
context of a wide range of policies intended to support women, and to counter discrimination,
throughout a career in police work. The long-term benefits remain to be seen but the Australian
cases bear watching by other police departments, given growing expectations world-wide regarding
a better gender balance in policing. In addition, it must be noted that to properly account for their
actions on equity, police departments in Australia and elsewhere need to be much more transparent
on key measures of equity. As noted, the present review was a scoping study confined to public
source material. The authors intend to engage in follow-up studies by tracking the long-term
impacts of these initiatives through requests to police departments for more detailed data. This
approach will also provide additional tests of departmental transparency in accounting for gender-
oriented human resource management practices.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors
Aiyana Ward is a Tutor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University in Brisbane
Australia.
Tim Prenzler is a Professor of Criminology in the School of Law and Criminology, University of the Sunshine Coast,
Australia. His teaching and research areas include crime and corruption prevention, policing, the security industry,
police and security officer safety, and gender in policing. His books include Regulating the Security Industry: Global
Perspectives (2018, Routledge, with Mahesh Nalla), Understanding Crime Prevention: The Case Study Approach (2017,
Australian Academic Press), Civilian Oversight of Police: Advancing Accountability in Law Enforcement (2016, Taylor
& Francis, with Garth den Heyer) and Contemporary Police Practice (2015, Oxford University Press, with Jacqueline
Drew).
Dr Jacqueline Drew is a Senior Lecturer and Program Director of the undergraduate degree in Criminology/
Information Technology with the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and Griffith Criminology Institute,
Griffith University, Brisbane Australia. Dr Drew is a psychologist who holds a PhD in organisational psychology and
is a Fellow of the Institute of Managers and Leaders. She has worked as a practitioner and researcher for over 20 years
in policing agencies. Dr Drew has been an invited scholar at numerous international forums, including the FBI
National Academy. Dr Drew undertakes research on organisational psychology of policing personnel and systems
(women in policing, police leadership, promotion systems, employee well-being and law enforcement suicide
prevention). Dr Drew also has expertise in cyber fraud and financial crime.

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