Female officers should not limit their own careers

FEMALE officers should not put limitations on themselves when pursuing their careers, the Police Federation of England and Wales’ annual conference has heard.

PSU officer PC Sally Mulvaney, from North Wales Police, told the Future of Women in Policing session that she initially thought she wasn’t “big enough or strong enough” to do the job.

PC Mulvaney (pictured) said: “We need positive role models who can remind us we can do it and we should give it a go. I have had officers not wanting to go to jobs with me because they think I can’t hold my own. Some think I will be scared of conflicts and don’t want to go to pub brawls or fights. That I should only go to sexual assaults.

“I thought I wasn’t big enough or strong enough to do PSU. I tried it and I loved it. Four years into the job and joining the police is one of the best decisions I have ever made.”

The conference also heard from GMP’s first female, Asian police officer, Det Sgt Nita Jhansi-Garrod.

Det Sgt Jhansi-Garrod told delegates she had defeated a world of racial and sexual discrimination in order to pursue a career she loved.

She was called a “stupid fucking Paki bitch” at work and took her force to a tribunal for verbal and institutional abuse.

And she said she was treated differently from her very first day on the job.

“On my first day on division I was called in by the inspector and was given a talk. I was told: ‘Welcome to the shift Nita. I hope you’re not going to cause us the problems that your counterpart has caused us.’ I later understood that I was being compared to another Asian officer. People like me were part of the problem. Not the solution.”

However, she loved her job and said she knew she had made the right decision.

She added: “It is not all doom and gloom. There are loads of positives. You can walk through CID today and 50% are women. When I joined there weren’t even that many on the force.”

The session also heard that women who want a flexible and successful career in policing should specialise in cyber crime, according to a retired officer.

Charlie McMurdie, who left the Met recently after 30 years, said the “future is bright” for women who have experience in technology.

She at the Police Federation of England and Wales’ annual conference: “I would say I had one of the most diverse teams in the Met. Women were running so many different aspects – surveillance, technology, forensics, strategy.

“Cyber crime facilitates the opportunity for flexible working. It is 24/7. It is global. It requires language skills. We can facilitate job sharing and part-time working. And when you look to move on from the police, the future is bright for anyone with that skill set.”