North Dakota Highway Patrol signs pledge to increase women in law enforcement - INFORUM

BISMARCK — Only 4% of North Dakota Highway Patrol troopers are women, and on Thursday, Feb. 10, the agency signed a pledge to aiming to increase women's representation among its ranks.

Of the Highway Patrol's 159 troopers, seven are women. At a press conference on Thursday, officials said North Dakota's law enforcement needs to reflect the community it serves, meaning it needs more women and minorities.

In a first step toward increasing the number of women in law enforcement positions, the Highway Patrol joined the 30x30 Initiative, a nationwide effort to increase the number of women in policing. The North Dakota Highway Patrol is the first law enforcement agency in the state to join the pledge.

The initiative aims to make law enforcement 30% women by 2030. However, the North Dakota Highway Patrol said, reaching that 30% threshold for its troopers by 2030 is unlikely because there are currently so few women in the agency. At current staffing levels, they would need to employ 48 women to hit the 30% threshold.

In addition to recruiting more women officers, the pledge also aims to better the experiences of women currently in law enforcement.

Sgt. Jenna Clawson Huibregtse, one of two women in the Highway Patrol's 38 leadership positions, said the 30x30 Initiative will work to break barriers to have multiple women in leadership roles and present at important discussions.

"To have more than one female perspective is almost unheard of, not only in the North Dakota Highway Patrol, but in law enforcement in general just because there are so few of us," Clawson Huibregtse said.

She said Highway Patrol is listening to the concerns of its women troopers, citing a recent change in dress code policy which now allows women to wear their hair in ponytails instead of strictly buns and have their nails painted. She said the agency was amenable to the policy change because it was something that was never thought about since only men were present when the policy was drafted.

The Highway Patrol is having difficulty recruiting applicants for its training academy, so by signing the 30x30 Inititative the agency hopes it will recruit more women and people in general to apply for open training academy slots, said North Dakota Highway Patrol Superintendent Brandon Solberg.

"We've got to do something different because we're just kind of hitting a wall here just as far as our ability to recruit the right people," he said.

The Highway Patrol has attempted social media advertisements targeted specifically toward women to try to get more women recruits, but Solberg said that effort had "limited success." The agency is exploring options to recruit more women, he said.

Some women are intimidated to apply for Highway Patrol training because they would be the minority, Clawson Huibregtse said. However, having women troopers meet individually with potential women recruits often helps quell any concerns and gives them confidence to apply, she said.

"We always like to remind (women) that they are absolutely capable to do this job," she said.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Michelle Griffith, a Report for America corps member, at [email protected].

source: https://www.inforum.com/news/north-dakota/north-dakota-highway-patrol-signs-pledge-to-increase-women-in-law-enforcement

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