Dear Bullethead:
I'm on a regional tactical team that handles situations for seven agencies. I'm one of three supervisors assigned to the team. It's a good setup. Everyone has worked really hard to get to where they are, and our training sessions are tough and challenging.
Recently, one of the agencies represented on our team got a new chief. He's pushing us to add a female. Right now we've got about four officers from each agency, all males. I'm OK with females in police work, and I suppose that if the officer went through the regular screening like everyone else, they would be physically capable regardless of their sex. But wouldn't the whole team dynamic change? I'm sure some team members would change the way they act because of the female. We have incredible esprit de corps, and the team functions flawlessly on our missions. Am I just being old fashioned, or is there a real concern in a unit like this?
Tac Team Leader
Dear Jedi Knight,
You might be too much of a moron for me to answer your actual question. You wrote, the team functions flawlessly on your missions, so you have a huge problem. You see, Mr. Jedi Idiot, there's no such thing as flawless in law enforcement. If you and the other two supervisors have lost the ability to find room for improvement, you should all leave the team. You should be replaced by supervisors who understand that when we think we get it perfect in any law enforcement mission, from a traffic stop to a full-scale tactical operation, we are lying to our people and ourselves.
Every good cop debriefs everything they do. It might be a five-second brainstorm after a traffic stop, or a complete tactical debriefing after a mission. We log each of those for future improvement and, in the future, always find other things we could have done better.
One of the biggest problems cops have is we tend to think that since we all survived, everything went well. Obviously, our ultimate goal is to make it to the end of every shift in one piece, but this doesn't mean we couldn't have done things much better and safer.
The rest of your question is valid, so instead of ripping your arms off and beating you with them until you get what I'm saying, I'll just leave you with what I've already said and recommend you quickly pull your head out of your fourth point of contact.
You didn't cross the line and assert females aren't strong enough to be cops because some parolee might beat them to within an inch of their life but you came close. I love hearing that one because for every female cop who isn't as strong as some 22-year-old parolee who spent the last five years in a Special Housing Unit doing 500 burpees a day, I'll show you plenty of male cops who will get their butts kicked too. You want tough and challenging? Start your next training day with 500 burpees and write me another letter afterward, if you can raise your arms.
We've all seen the video of that Texas trooper getting sucker punched then just about killed. The problem there was tactics, not size or strength. That same punch would have knocked Ol' Bullethead and the rest of you clear to the cheap seats. Proper tactics would have prevented the punch from being thrown, or at least landing, and understanding tactics isn't gender based. There are plenty of women who have excellent tactics because they recognize their physical limitations and have learned to compensate with proper tactics. If we could get all the macho men in law enforcement to do that, we would be leaps and bounds ahead of where we are.
How do you know the dynamic won't change with a new male on the team? You might get an extremely religious guy who doesn't like the way your team jokes around, or maybe just a great operator with the personality of a tin can. The point: Every new body brings uncertainty and change.
Listen up, slick: You know all of this, so quit being a jackass. Your problem is she has different equipment than you and you thought SWAT was still a male stronghold. If a female can make the requirements physical, mental, tactical, etc. they should be allowed on the team, and they should be welcomed.
One last thing: That agency with the new chief might be a problem. You probably don't know that chief's reason for wanting a woman on the team, but every chief should want qualified people in the right positions. Make sure your qualifications for SWAT are set in stone and reflected in MOUs between the departments. Then if he puts a woman up and she passes, welcome her. If she doesn't, send her packing like you would anyone else.
Now you're perfect.
