LAPD looks to Garda for advice on recruiting women

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has sought advice from An Garda Síochána on how it might go about increasing female applicants among its ranks.

The Garda has one of the highest proportions of female officers in Europe and in its recent recruitment campaign, 40 per cent of some11,000 applicants were women.

On Tuesday night Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said the force should be an example to others worldwide.

“Increasingly actually people are coming to us,” he said. “Even today my colleagues in human resources … [were in contact] with colleagues in [the] LAPD. They were talking about our outreach in our recent recruitment campaign and even how did we achieve 40 per cent women applicants.”

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A Garda spokesman said as part of ongoing information sharing and collaboration with police services abroad, it had been in talks with the LAPD in recent days over a range of subjects, including its interaction with the community.

“As part of this discussion, An Garda Síochána provided LAPD with information on its recent recruitment campaign for members of An Garda Síochána, which resulted in 40 per cent of the approximate 11,000 applications being female,” he said.

The LAPD, which recently outlined targets to increase female officer hiring to 50 per cent of new recruits, did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

The commissioner made his remarks on international co-operation at an event on Tuesday night marking the centenary of an early meeting precipitating creation of the force.

At that event, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, former minister Nora Owen and former Garda commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan each addressed the importance, and evolution, of female involvement in policing.

“During my time growing up in An Garda Síochána, when women looked to join some of the specialist units, quite frankly there was quite a lot of pushback against it,” said Ms O’Sullivan.

“Despite all of the challenges, you know, women are now in all of the most specialist sections.”

The recent recruitment push featured adverts that featured prominently serving women members. Today, they comprise about 3,980, or almost one-third of serving officers. The two existing deputy commissioner posts are filled by women.

In the most recent class of student gardaí, 37 per cent of those newly sworn in were women. An internal women’s network has been established to provide “peer-to-peer support and advice to female Garda personnel” both serving officers and regular staff on how to advance their careers within the organisation.