Abstract:
The new and growing presence of women in the police department of Houston, Texas does more than create a need for a new locker room. Women appear to introduce a different sense of policing tactics, particularly as regards the police response to violent, life-threatening confrontations. In a department known (even notorious) for officers' use of deadly force, the new women members who take their places in the roll call beginning in the late 1970s opt for different methods aimed at defusing rather than escalating tense situations. In November 1990, a lone woman police officer, having pulled a car over for nothing more than its having an expired license plate, finds herself in a confrontation with a man wanted on felony charges in two states. Unable to get backup help, her attempts to take the suspect into custody by minimizing the situation fail. When he attacks her violently, she finds she must respond in kind. Only after three bloody rounds does she come to the conclusion that, to save her own life, she must shoot the suspect. Both his death and the congratulations it inspires among male police officers and the community at large, trouble her. Has she succeeded on terms she should reject?
Learning Objective:
This case provides a vehicle for discussion about the way the dynamics of public institutions change when they become the province of both sexes.
