St. Paul police pledge to nearly double number of female recruits by 2030

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The Saint Paul Police Department says it is making a push to double the number of women recruits for the force in the next nine years.

It's all part of a nationwide initiative called the 30 by 30 Pledge. Paw Hto, who we met while working the St. Paul police's COVID-19 screening station, is part of the department’s career path program. She will go to their academy this fall.

"I’ve always wanted to become a police officer since I was little," Hto said.

"It’s critical we tell females they can do this job," said Deputy Chief Julie Maidment.

Deputy Chief Maidment is leading the charge to recruit more women.

"I think it will be easier, especially with this initiative," said the deputy chief.

The 30 by 30 Pledge is a national program that St. Paul officially joined Friday. more than 50 departments already pledged to have 30 percent female recruits by the year 2030. Nationwide, the average is only 12 percent.

"I know growing up myself, I didn’t see that many female police officers, and if you don’t see them, you don’t visualize yourself doing that job," said Deputy Chief Maidment.

St. Paul police is slightly ahead of average with 17 percent of their sworn force being women -- and that number is steadily but slowly growing. When Deputy Chief Maidment became a cop 25 years ago, she guesses it was already between 8 and 10 percent.

"Well that’s the unique thing about the St. Paul Police Department: there’s been amazing trailblazers prior to me," she said.

For the past couple months, St. Paul police have been testing out a potential new uniform, which for the first time comes in women’s cuts. Up until now, women had to take men’s uniforms and have them tailored.

As for the impact of more women on the force, the initiative’s research says women use less force, are named in fewer complaints, and are seen as more compassionate. To Deputy Chief Maidment, more women just makes more sense.

"Many, many females that have gone before me and the goal right now is to make sure there are many, many more after me," she explained.