Police moonlighting and gender difference: exploring paid detail security for men and women officers in North American police departments

摘要

Paid detail public police work is underexplored in criminal justice and criminological research. As a result, gender disparities for women police officers in paid detail policing, entailing the private employment of public police for services that often resemble stationary guarding, have not been investigated. Based on analysis of police paid detail records and interviews with police and users of paid detail across the United States and Canada, we investigate the significance of paid detail for police officer pay and differences by gender. We discuss gender proportions in police departments and compare them to gender proportions in paid detail assignments. Our analysis reveals all nine police departments selected as case studies had far more men than women officers. This dominance was also evidenced by the fact that most assignments were taken up by men in all nine departments. Moreover, albeit the differences were usually modest, in seven of nine departments, the proportion of assignments taken up by men was greater than the proportion of men in the department. After reflecting on explanations for why this disparity exists, we conclude with recommendations for policy reform, and directions for future research.