U.S. police departments are increasingly focused on enhancing gender diversity, yet the impact of female representation on policing practices remains inconclusive. This study examines whether the proportion of women in large, local police agencies is associated with the implementation of community policing, specifically through the operation of a community policing unit.
Logistic regression was conducted using 2016 and 2020 data from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) surveys.
The findings indicate no statistically significant relationship between women’s representation across ranks and the presence of a community policing unit. However, agency size, region, functional differentiation—operationalized as the number of specialized units within an agency—and state-level presidential election results were significantly associated with community policing implementation.
These results suggest that organizational structures and contextual factors may have a stronger influence than gender representation.
