Political scientists have increasingly begun to study how citizen characteristics shape whether—and how—they interact with the police. Less is known about how officer characteristics shape these interactions. In this article, we examine how one officer characteristic—officer sex—shapes the nature of police-initiated contact with citizens. Drawing on literature from multiple fields, we develop and test a set of competing expectations. Using over four million traffic stops made by the Florida State Highway Patrol and Charlotte (North Carolina) Police Department, we find that women officers are less likely to search drivers than men on the force. Despite these lower search rates, when women officers do conduct a search, they are more likely to find contraband and they confiscate the same net amount of contraband as men. These results indicate that women officers are able to minimize the number of negative interactions with citizens without losses in effectiveness.

This data set is no longer compiled by the Ministry of Solicitor Services Information on the number of police officers according to their rank and gender. Shows the number of male and female officers at each rank, as well as annual changes in these numbers. The data can be accessed from Statistics Canada.

Sadly, the trend of fatal police shootings in the United States seems to only be increasing, with a total 1,173 civilians having been shot, 248 of whom were Black, as of December 2024. In 2023, there were 1,164 fatal police shootings. Additionally, the rate of fatal police shootings among Black Americans was much higher than that for any other ethnicity, standing at 6.1 fatal shootings per million of the population per year between 2015 and 2024. Police brutality in the U.S. In recent years, particularly since the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, police brutality has become a hot button issue in the United States. The number of homicides committed by police in the United States is often compared to those in countries such as England, where the number is significantly lower. Black Lives Matter The Black Lives Matter Movement, formed in 2013, has been a vocal part of the movement against police brutality in the U.S. by organizing “die-ins”, marches, and demonstrations in response to the killings of black men and women by police. While Black Lives Matter has become a controversial movement within the U.S., it has brought more attention to the number and frequency of police shootings of civilians.

Data on police personnel (police officers by gender, civilian and other personnel), police officers and authorized strength per 100,000 population, authorized police officer strength, population, net gain or loss from hirings and departures, police officers eligible to retire and selected crime statistics. Data is provided for municipal police services, 2000 to 2023.

This project provided the first large-scale examination of the police response to intimate partner violence and of the practice known as "dual arrest." The objectives of the project were: (1) to describe the prevalence and context of dual arrest in the United States, (2) to explain the variance in dual arrest rates throughout the United States, (3) to describe dual arrest within the full range of the police response to intimate partner violence, (4) to analyze the factors associated with no arrest, single arrest, and dual arrest, (5) to examine the reasons why women are arrested in intimate partner cases, and (6) to describe how the criminal justice system treats women who have been arrested for domestic violence. Data for the project were collected in two phases. In Phase I, researchers examined all assault and intimidation cases in the year 2000 National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) database (NATIONAL INCIDENT-BASED REPORTING SYSTEM, 2000 [ICPSR 3449]) to investigate the extent to which dual arrest is occurring nationwide, the relationship between incident and offender characteristics, and the effect of state laws on police handling of these cases for all relationship types. Because the NIBRS dataset contained a limited number of incident-specific variables that helped explain divergent arrest practices, in Phase II, researchers collected more detailed information on a subset of NIBRS cases from 25 police departments of varying sizes across four states. This phase of the study was restricted to intimate partner and other domestic violence cases. Additional data were collected for these cases to evaluate court case outcomes and subsequent re-offending. This phase also included an assessment of how closely department policy reflected state law in a larger sample of agencies within five states. The data in Part 1 (Phase I Data) contain 577,862 records from the NIBRS. This includes information related to domestic violence incidents such as the most serious offense against the victim, the most serious victim injury, the assault type, date of incident, and the counts of offenses, offenders, victims, and arrests for the incident. The data also include information related to the parties involved in the incident including demographics for the victim(s) and arrestee(s) and the relationship between victim(s) and arrestee(s). There is also information related to the jurisdiction in which the incident occurred such as population, urban/rural classification, and whether the jurisdiction is located in a metropolitan area. There are also variables pertaining to whether a weapon was used, the date of arrest, and the type of arrest. Also included are variables regarding the police department such as the number of male and female police officers and civilians employed. The data in Part 2 (Phase II Data) contain 4,388 cases and include all of the same variables as those in Part 1. In addition to these variables, there are variables such as whether the offender was on the scene when the police arrived, who reported the incident, the exact nature of injuries suffered by the involved parties, victim and offender substance use, offender demeanor, and presence of children. Also included are variables related to the number of people including police and civilians who were on the scene, the number of people who were questioned, whether there were warrants for the victim(s) or offender(s), whether citations were issued, whether arrests were made, whether any cases were prosecuted, the number of charges filed and against whom, and the sentences for prosecuted cases that resulted in conviction. The data in Part 3 (Police Department Policy Data) contain 282 cases and include variables regarding whether the department had a domestic violence policy, what the department's arrest policy was, whether a police report needed to be made, whether the policy addressed mutual violence, whether the policy instructed how to determine the primary aggressor, and what factors were taken into account in making a decision to arrest. There is also information related to the proportion of arrests involving intimate partners, the proportion of arrests involving other domestics, the proportion of arrests involving acquaintances, and the proportion of arrests involving strangers.

Notes for publication: The table presented is based on the data from the Police Crime Statistics (PKS) of the State of Schleswig-Holstein. These are the results of the police investigation before handing them over to the public prosecutor's office or the court. The PKS contains the illegal offences that have become known to the police, including the attempts threatened with punishment, the number of suspects identified and a number of other information on cases, victims or suspects. The data refer to a closed reporting year and are published annually for the previous calendar year. ##Table-specific information: Table 91 (Disaggregation of victims by age and sex) This dataset contains figures on victims by age and sex in Schleswig-Holstein, which were recorded in the corresponding reporting year. ##Structure of the table: The following columns are included: - Key number of the offence - Crime key number (key of the respective offences or sum key) - Offence - plain text of the offence or the sum key - Completed / Attempt / Total - Number of victims after completed, attempted acts and total - Total victims - Total number of victims - Gender - Division into male and female and total - Age groups - Number of victims divided by age groups - The preceding number in brackets (1) - (18) denotes the column numbering. Character set: Western European (Windows – 1252/WinLatin 1)

This dataset provides the total number of law enforcement employees, the number of male officers, the number of female officers, the number of male civilian employees, and the number of female civilian employees listed alphabetically by state.

Notes for publication The table presented is based on the data from the Police Crime Statistics (PKS) of the State of Schleswig-Holstein. These are the results of the police investigation before handing them over to the public prosecutor's office or the court. The PKS contains the illegal offences that have become known to the police, including the attempts threatened with punishment, the number of suspects identified and a number of other information on cases, victims or suspects. The data refer to a closed reporting year and are published annually for the previous calendar year. ##Table specific: Table 1 (basic table) This dataset contains basic data on the offences, broken down by offences and groups of offences, which were recorded in Schleswig-Holstein in the corresponding reporting year. ##Structure of the table The following columns are included: - Key number of the offence - Crime key number (key of the respective offences or sum key) - Offence - plain text of the offence or the sum key - Cases - Number of cases -% share of all offences - Share of total number of offences - Experiments - Number of experiments - Trials in % - Percentage of trials in total cases - Crime scene - Number of cases by crime scene size classes - With a firearm - Number of cases where a firearm was threatened or fired - Cases resolved during the reporting period - Number of cases resolved - Percentage of cases solved - Percentage of cases solved - Total number of suspects identified - Total number of suspects identified - Male - Number of male suspects - Female - Number of female suspects - Non-German suspects - Number of non-German suspects including percentage of total suspects - The preceding number in brackets (1) - (19) denotes the column numbering. Character set: Western European (Windows – 1252/WinLatin 1)

Notes for publication: The table presented is based on the data from the Police Crime Statistics (PKS) of the State of Schleswig-Holstein. These are the results of the police investigation before handing them over to the public prosecutor's office or the court. The PKS contains the illegal offences that have become known to the police, including the attempts threatened with punishment, the number of suspects identified and a number of other information on cases, victims or suspects. The data refer to a closed reporting year and are published annually for the previous calendar year. ##Table-specific information: Table 92 (Relationship of the victim to the suspect) This dataset contains victim numbers on the relationship of the victim to the suspect, which were recorded in Schleswig-Holstein in the corresponding reporting year. ##Structure of the table: The following columns are included: - Key number of the offence - Crime key number (key of the respective offences or sum key) - Offence - plain text of the offence or the sum key - Completed / Attempt / Total - Number of victims after completed, attempted acts and total - Victims - Division into male and female and total - Victim’s relationship with the suspect - Breakdown of victims by type of relationship with the suspect - The preceding number in brackets (1) - (16) denotes the column numbering. Character set: Western European (Windows – 1252/WinLatin 1)