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Date: 4/20/2021
NORTHAMPTON – On April 9 the Northampton Police Department announced it would be joining the 30x30 initiative, a program to help increase women representation in police departments across the country.
Northampton Police Chief Jody Kasper said that the program provides the framework for departments to increase their diversity with a goal of having women representing 30 percent of new officers by 2030.
“The initiative provides a framework for steps that police departments can take to improve the representation and experience of women in policing. The goal is to increase the representation in newly hired officers to 30 percent by 2030, hence the name 30x30,” she said.
In order to achieve more representation for women in policing, Kasper said actions are broken down into three categories that are rolled out over time.
“We want to be sure we have policies, practices and an internal culture that supports women throughout their careers. As part of the pledge, we have committed to different actions in three categories; essential, strongly recommended and recommended. These actions are then divided into phases laid out over time,” she said.
One example Kasper used was by using demographic data to issue progress reports and take action based on those reports.
“An example includes providing demographic data on applicants, new hires, retention, training, specialty assignments, and promotions. Then contributing agencies will provide this data and progress reports will be produced so that we can identify effective strategies and learn from the experience of other departments,” she said.
Before receiving an email to join the initiative, Kasper initially read about it online.
“I first saw it on social media that another department was participating in it and then I received an email that was sent out to police departments across the state, making us aware of the initiative,” she said.
By joining the initiative, Kasper said it will help the department to represent the community it serves.
“I think police departments should be striving to best reflect the communities that they serve and increasing the number of women officers would certainly help us achieve that goal. I think specific to leadership and command it is critical that different voices are included in the decision-making process. So, women and people of all demographic diversities should all have a seat at the table,” she said.
Currently Kasper said women only make up about 12 percent of police officers, with that number shrinking at higher ranks.
“In policing, only about 12 percent of police officers are female, but as you move up the rank structure, that percentage decreases at every rank to the top, where you find about 2 to 3 percent of police chiefs across the country being female,” she said.
As the first Massachusetts police department to join the initiative, Kasper said she is excited to lead the way for increased representation for women in police departments across the state.
“We are excited to lead the way on this. I think Northampton is known as a progressive city and I think NPD is known as a progressive police department. This is not the first time we have been the first at something and this another example of our police department grabbing on to data-driven and important progressive initiatives in today’s police department,” she said.