Only 23 per cent of the Ottawa Police Service is female, meaning more than three-quarters of police officers in the city are male, according to Ottawa Police Patrol Sgt. Nathalie Perras.
“The chief (Charles Bordeleau) has always said that we should have equal representation for everybody in our community, and women make up 50 per cent of our population and in order to serve our population better, we need to have more representation (of women),” said Perras.
The first female police officer was hired in 1913; the second hired in 1946 and was the first women to wear a uniform, consisting of an ankle-long skirt, and a badge on her shirt.
“When I started, there were not that many women in policing, there was maybe 12 women and 110 men or so and this was with Gloucester,” says Perras.
Perras says since she started, the numbers have increased, but she hopes to one day see women making up 50 per cent of the force.
The Ottawa Police Service is doing more to show women that policing is a career for both sexes.
On March 4, the Ottawa Police Service held an information session that was geared solely towards women to illustrate the need and want for women in policing.
Since 2006, the Ottawa police has been hosting these female-only events to try to change the percentage of women in policing.
The information sessions give women an in-depth look into the Ottawa police and also allow attendees the opportunity for on-the-spot mentoring by high-ranked female officers.
The lack of women within the Ottawa Police Service is evident to anyone glimpsing who’s behind the wheel of a police cruiser or walking through the halls of the Elgin Street police station.
According to Perras, a female officer can deal with some types of cases better than males do; for example, sexual assault.
Kelsey Vander Veen, 23, a fifth-year criminology student at Carleton University, attended the information session and says she hopes to become a police officer.
“It made for a more comfortable environment in what is typically a male-dominated career,” she says. “It was a well run event that gave us incite into every part of the OPS.”
Vander Veen says she firmly believes that even though there is a difference between men and women physically, it should not jeopardize women’s ability to get a policing job.
“Although women are not as strong, it does not mean they cannot perform their duties as well,” says Vander Veen. “It just means they need to do it in a different manner.”