How policewomen make communities safer | Ivonne Roman

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 30 July 2019

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Less 13 percent of police officers in the United States are women -- despite their proven effectiveness in diffusing violent situations and reducing the use of force. Drawing on more than two decades of experience as a police officer and chief, TED Fellow Ivonne Roman shares how a simple fix to police academy physical fitness tests could help build a more balanced force that benefits communities and officers alike.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This TED Talk features police captain Yvonne Roman, recorded live at TED 2019.
0:09.0	I've been a police officer in an urban city for nearly 25 years.
0:15.8	That's crazy, right?
0:18.0	And in that time, I've served in every rank from police officer to police chief.
0:24.9	A few years ago, I noticed something alarming.
0:29.3	Starting in 2014, I started monitoring recruits as they cycled through police academies
0:34.9	in the state of New Jersey.
0:36.7	And I found that women were failing at rates between 65 and 80%
0:41.3	due to varying aspects of the physical fitness tests.
0:45.3	I learned that a change in policy now required recruits
0:49.3	to pass the fitness exam within 10 short workout sessions.
0:53.3	This had the greatest impact on women. The change meant that to a fitness exam within 10 short workout sessions.
0:54.5	This had the greatest impact on women.
0:57.5	The change meant that recruits had about three weeks out of a five-month-long academy to pass
1:02.7	a fitness exam.
1:05.0	This just didn't make sense, though.
1:07.8	Police agencies and police recruits had made huge investments to get those recruits into the academy.
1:14.8	Police recruits had passed lengthy background checks. They had passed medical and psychological exams.
1:21.3	They had quit their jobs. And many had spent more than $2,000 in fees and equipment
1:26.8	just to get kicked out within the
1:28.8	first three weeks. The dire situation in New Jersey led me to examine the status of women
1:34.8	in policing across the United States. I found that women make up less than 13% of police officers,
	...

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