Why Two Women Cops Were Convicted of Cowardice (From Criminal Justice System and Women, P 427-435, 1982, Barbara Raffel Price and Natalie J Sokoloff, eds. -- See NCJ-115340)

• NCJ Number: 115362
• Author(s): C Dreifus
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 9 pages
• Sale Source: Clark Boardman Company, Ltd
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. From Ms Magazine, April 1981

Annotation

After a strong affirmative action order in 1973, the Detroit Police Department hired one woman for every man, but in 1980 only 12 percent of the department was female, 63 percent of whom were black.

Abstract

Both blacks and women face harassment from their white, male coworkers; and the police union has shown little interest in protecting its minority members. In a 1979 case, two black female officers were accused of cowardice following an incident with a black male citizen in which a white male supervisor intervened and was himself attacked. Both were convicted on a charge of cowardice, and it took a year and three departmental trials before the conviction was overturned. Within weeks of their rehiring both were again dismissed on the basis of the city's budgetary problems -- problems that resulted in the firing of 271 women officers and the elimination of almost half the gains of the affirmative action program. (Author abstract modified)