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Local and federal law enforcement agencies are working to add more women to the field

Local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies are working toward meeting their goal of 30 percent of their force being women by 2030.
Samantha Simmons
Local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies are working toward meeting their goal of 30 percent of their force being women by 2030.

Less than half of FBI employees are female — and the FBI and other law enforcement agencies are trying to improve similar stats in their own departments. At a job fair in Albany, some curious women and girls got to consider what such a career might be like.

Celebrating Women's History Month, the FBI's Albany Field Office held its second annual "Recruiting Women into Law Enforcement" event Tuesday.

Hundreds of girls and women filled the Albany Capital Center to share their experiences in law enforcement and learn more about what’s available in the field.

Emilie Weig is a 16-year-old at Hudson High School. She was hoping to speak with already-established women in the field. Weig says listening to Meredith Kaiser, a sergeant in the Glenville Police Department, was eye-opening.

“She had said that she had planned to do something else in her life and then she decided to just fully reinvent herself,” Weig said. “I don't even think about if that were to become a problem where I just get stuck and decide to do something that I have that option to fully reinvent myself.”

Kaiser says before joining the force, she was a photographer for a newspaper. But she decided she wanted to a job that allowed her to better serve the community.

“I was just standing on the sidelines. I wanted to do their job instead of my job. And it was as simple as having the college credits, and taking the civil service exam. And, then preparing for what was going to happen if I did get offered a job,” Kaiser said. “So, I started exercising, studying. And since then, I have just felt my way through my career, to the point where I thought that my abilities were best utilized as being a supervisor.”

Jaya Dixon studies communications and Spanish at the University at Albany. After the panel, Dixon took the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with a panelist to learn more about what a career in law enforcement would look like. Dixon says both the panel discussion and talking with vendors helped her learn about careers within law enforcement she hadn’t heard of and where her skills could best be used.

“I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do. I heard a lot of different positions from the FBI. We had the DEA; I was more so interested in the FBI but it's just that aspect of like the physical fitness because I wasn't really looking for anything physical like on the streets,” she said. “I was looking for more so intelligence related and I found out later on that for DEA, you don't have to do that physical aspect if you're just planning to go for intelligence purposes.”

Sarah Ruane, the local FBI Public Affairs Specialist, says there is a variety of opportunities across hundreds of offices.

"I think one of the best parts about the FBI in particular, we have literally thousands of jobs, and having the badge and gun isn't for everybody and we recognize that,” Ruane said.

Ruane says some communities feel more comfortable talking with a female agent. She adds that the agency doesn’t view diversity as only race, gender, or sexual orientation, but experiences too.

Nearly 70 law enforcement agencies from across New York and Vermont were represented at the event, with nearly all tables filled with women from their departments.

An exception was Chief Jeffrey Burnham, tabling for Springfield, Vermont's Police Department. He says the department is overwhelmingly understaffed with only nine of 15 positions filled and no women on the force.

"I haven't found the niche that allows me to go and recruit women in a place that gives me traction because I want women to work in the police field and they bring assets that men don't have and that makes the whole department better when you have options,” Burnham said. “I see the value; I want to do it. I just haven't figured out that formula to invite them in that makes them go, ‘Oh, I really want that.’”

Across the nation, agencies have committed to having 30 percent of their applicants be female by 2030. According to a 2023 diversity report, 45 percent of the FBI’s employees were female.

Samantha joined the WAMC staff in 2023 after graduating from the University at Albany. She covers the City of Troy and Rensselaer County at large. Outside of reporting, she host's WAMC's Weekend Edition and Midday Magazine.

She can be reached by phone at (518)-465-5233 Ext. 211 or by email at ssimmons@wamc.org.