The Police Subculture - Minority Group Structures in Policing

Traditionally, the policing occupation has been mainly the province of white males. Not until the late 1960s and early 1970s did minorities began to enter policing in substantial numbers. The experience of black officers was first chronicled in the groundbreaking book, Black in Blue (1969), which spoke of how black police officers were accepted under the work situation but excluded from the off-duty social scene of white police officers. Also, barriers had been erected to keep blacks out of the detective and upper ranks of policing.

This was true for all minorities but in particular female minorities. Minority males had a much greater level of acceptance by white officers. Minority females, on the other hand, were not only looked down upon by white males but also male police officers of their own minority group. It was believed that female officers could not meet what many viewed as the demanding physicality of policing. Females proved them wrong. Research conducted on the performance of females as police officers has been positive across the board. Females were found to have had the same performance rates of their male counterparts and established better rapport with citizens. Finally, they also generated much less in the area of citizen complaints, which did not go unnoticed by police supervisors and administrators.

The late 1960s and early 1970s also witnessed the open entry of members of the gay and lesbian community into policing. Just as females were viewed as unsuitable to manage the demands of policing, so were gay and lesbian officers. Beyond sexism, many police officers of all stripes were challenged by their own homophobia, and gay and lesbian officers had their own special rite of passage into policing to experience. However, time did for them the same as for female police officers. Gay and lesbian officers demonstrated to the straight officers that they could do the job. This won over, in some circles, grudging acceptance to their presence in policing.