Putting A Fresh Face Forward: Does the Gender of a Police Chief Affect Public Perceptions?

As the public, policymakers, and scholars increasingly call for police reform, one commonly proposed solution is to increase the number of female officers and leaders under the assumption that female police will be perceived as more trustworthy, less violent, and more effective at addressing gendered crimes. Using a survey experiment, we explore whether there is a link between passive representation in police leadership and civilians’ perceptions of substantive representation by the police. We argue that due to feminine stereotypes and role congruity theory, female police chiefs should be perceived as more effective at addressing gendered crimes, corruption, police brutality, and community relations, but be evaluated as less competent on addressing violent crimes. We find that female police chiefs are considered to be more competent at handling gendered crimes (with little relationship with non-gendered crimes), and are viewed as more able to address corruption, police brutality, and community relations. Female police chiefs are also more likely to receive higher levels of overall support. We emphasize that our study points to the importance of passive representation within police leadership, but caution that increasing women’s representation may be a necessary, but not sufficient condition to improve relations between the public and the police.