Charlottesville Police Department working to add more women to its ranks

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - The Charlottesville Police Department says it is working to add more women officers to its ranks.

The department currently has nine female officers. It aims to increase women in police recruit classes to 30% by 2030.

Officer Sydney Love-Baker says women bring a different perspective to the team.

“I’ve noticed victims and certain people only want to talk to women. So like, you have a female officer available, it’s fantastic,” Officer Love-Baker said. “Females can just relate on a certain level and kind of have a different perspective than a male, which is important.”

CPD Chief Michael Kochis says the initiative to add women officers goes beyond recruitment.

“Women mentoring groups and lactation rooms and stuff like that within your organization to ensure that we’re creating an area where women feel comfortable to come work in, let’s just be honest, a predominantly male profession,” the chief said.

Kochis says female officers are great at de-escalating situations: “Women are able to show up to a scene that may be pretty hectic, which a lot of the scenes that we show up to are, and they were able to right away bring the tone down,” he said.

Chief Kochis says CPD’s current police academy includes five female officers.

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