The 350 top women in law enforcement from across the country who gathered in Anaheim, CA, March 8-11 for the National Center for Women and Policing's second annual conference, "Police Leadership for the 21st Century: Women Implementing Change," left energized to create changes that would help more women enter and advance in policing careers. The National Center for Women and Policing is a division of the Feminist Majority Foundation.

"We lit a spark in all of the women that grew into a huge blaze of commitment," said Penny Harrington, Director of the National Center for Women and Policing. As a result of their attendance at the conference, twelve women from Colorado will form a statewide "Women Implementing Change" organization to work at changing the practices and policies impeding women in policing. Other women said they had never realized before the conference how their high positions in policing would allow them to make changes that would benefit women.

In her keynote luncheon address, Brigadier General Evelyn Patricia Foote inspired listeners with her life story of starting in the Army in the Women's Army Corps in the 1940s, the only place for women in the Army at that time, and working her way through the ranks of the regular army to become one of the highest ranking women in the US military. She is now leading a special panel investigating sexual harassment in the military.

At "A Salute to Women In Law Enforcement" luncheon, Carolen Bailey, who recently retired as the highest ranking woman serving as Assistant Director of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, received the "Lifetime Achievement" award. The "Fighting for Gender Equity" award was given to Commander Gwynn Elliott with the Pittsburgh Police Department, who was the first woman hired in the Pittsburgh Police Department under a precedent setting consent-decree. The "Redesigning Policing" award went to Los Angeles Police Commissioner Edith Perez, and Inspector General Kathy Mader, who have both been instrumental in encouraging reform in the LAPD.

Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal noted that many consent decrees that opened doors for women in policing are now expiring. As a result, agencies are slipping backwards into their old ways. For example, the Pittsburgh police department, once the nation's leader in percentage of women on the force, lost its consent decree in 1991. Since then the percentage of women hired each year dropped from 45.7% (1976-1992) to 7.9% (1993-95). Currently, the first 732 applicants on the waiting list for the Pittsburgh Police Department are white men.

Attendees also heard from US Marshal Rosa Melendez, the first woman of color in the nation appointed as a US Marshall. Los Angeles City Councilmember Jackie Goldberg, who has been a major force for gender balance in the Los Angeles Police Department, stressed the importance of collaboration between women police, elected officials and women's rights advocates.

One of the most popular sessions was an assessment center training program designed to increase promotional opportunities for women in policing headed by Captain Mary Wamsley and Division Chief Heather Coogan of Denver, Colorado.

Kathy Spillar, National Coordinator of the Feminist Majority, led a special program on Preventing Abortion Clinic Violence which featured discussions on the importance of police/community cooperation in prevention as well as an update on some of the most dangerous anti-abortion extremist groups including ties to militias.

An entire day of the conference was dedicated to the critical issue of domestic violence, including violence in police families. Experts in the issue of domestic violence spoke, including Bonnie Campbell, the head of the Department of Justice's Violence Against Women programs. Aileen Adams from the US Department of Justice's Office for Victims of Crime offered insight into new national approaches to assisting victims of crime and urged participants to seek grants and other funding to provide better programs to assist victims. Earlier in the conference, Congressman John Conyers (D-Michigan) condemned the efforts of police organizations and the National Rifle Association to gut the Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban, which prohibits people “ including police officers “ convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors from owning or possessing guns.

At a press conference in support of the Domestic Violence Offenders Gun Ban law, top women in law enforcement joined with Feminist Majority President Eleanor Smeal, National Center for Women and Policing Director Penny Harrington, and a woman who was battered and threatened by her police officer husband to oppose all attempts to weaken the gun ban. Conference attendees may testify before Congress on the importance of applying the ban to police officers.

The conference opening reception highlighted a panel of mystery authors, who discussed their experiences as women writing about women in policing, crime, and feminism. The panel included Susan Dunlap and Laurie R. King whose books feature women cop protagonists and Annette Meyers, who, in addition to writing a mystery series about two women Wall St. headhunters and another series of historical mysteries, serves as the president of Sisters in Crime.

For more information see the Feminist Majority Foundation's National Center for Women and Policing.