I was a cop in a particularly nasty major metro area years ago… I worked with many women and people of color that were exceptional police officers… in fact, there are particular roles and responsibilities women and people of color can be assigned that a 6’ white male in his late 20’s wouldnt be effective in at all…
As an example, a lady I worked with made an outstanding truck stop hooker whenever we needed to run prostitution stings… I would have been pretty suspicious looking if they had dressed me up in fishnets and a leather mini skirt lol… and she was as tough as they came when it was time to get physical during an arrest… I had a lot of respect for her.. reasonably smart, hard working, and fearless… and we were able to deploy her in a way that I could never have worked (by the same token, I made a much more believable biker, redneck dope dealer, general ruffian than she ever could)…,
I had another partner when I worked on a felony fugitive apprehension squad that was born and raised in the projects… he could walk right into the ghetto and look and act in a way that everyone believed he belonged there… my big, pasty white, frame stood out like a turd in a punch bowl… he was also a lot of fun to be around, was lightning fast, which complimented my Sasquatch size and strength when we were out on foot having to run people down, etc… bar none he was my favorite partner during my law enforcement career… and blacker in color (and in behavior) than probably 99% of the people I’ve ever worked with…he was a seriously good cop and a genuinely good dude…I had zero reservations trusting my life with him…
It’s a good thing to have a diverse group of people in law enforcement… you can accomplish a lot more with a variety of cops on the street rather than having everyone look and act the same way..
That said, law enforcement, much like government and many companies have taken things too far over the last couple of decades, and have made hiring decisions based on genitals, race, religion, sexual orientation, etc as a priority rather than looking at those sort of things and an ancillary capability (if used the right way)… priority in hiring should be whether or not the candidate can physically do the job, has the mental acuity to do the job, the emotional and mental stability to do the job, etc…
Unfortunately many agencies in the US and Europe have their priorities reversed… it’s far more important that we hire more people with tits, or that are gay, or that are Muslim, etc, and hope they are smart enough and physical enough to do the job.. than it is to hire people that we know can do the job, that may happen to have tits, or are gay, or are Muslim, etc..