Officers share their experiences as figures reveal Derbyshire among just three forces where women make up half of new recruits

Once stereotypically a male role, being a police officer is now more welcoming to both genders – with half of recently hired cops in Derbyshire being women.
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This put Derbyshire among just three forces across England and Wales where women made up at least half of new officers.

When Chief Inspector Katie Andrews joined Derbyshire Constabulary aged 21, she was among a small minority of female recruits.

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The Sex Discrimination Act, introduced around two decades earlier in 1975, had abolished the separate women’s police departments in forces, harmonised pay scales and opened up all aspects of police work to women.

Chief Inspector Katie Andrew - who is not only responsible for the command teams in Chesterfield, Bolsover and North East Derbyshire, but also a bronze public order commander, tactical firearms commander, critical incident manager - has been with Derbyshire Constabulary for nearly 26 years (Photo: Derbyshire Constabulary)Chief Inspector Katie Andrew - who is not only responsible for the command teams in Chesterfield, Bolsover and North East Derbyshire, but also a bronze public order commander, tactical firearms commander, critical incident manager - has been with Derbyshire Constabulary for nearly 26 years (Photo: Derbyshire Constabulary)
Chief Inspector Katie Andrew - who is not only responsible for the command teams in Chesterfield, Bolsover and North East Derbyshire, but also a bronze public order commander, tactical firearms commander, critical incident manager - has been with Derbyshire Constabulary for nearly 26 years (Photo: Derbyshire Constabulary)

However, Chief Inspector Andrews describes how in her experience attitudes towards women and their roles remained very different when compared to men in the early days of her career.

But fast forward to today and things within the force have taken a huge leap forward.

Chief Inspector Andrews, who is responsible for Chesterfield, Bolsover, and North East Derbyshire, said: “When I was younger, I remember my friend’s dad was a police officer – that was my only ever connection with policing.

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"My background was sport, I went and studied sport at Loughborough University and I knew I didn’t want an office-based job, I didn’t want to teach and I didn’t know what I wanted to do.

Georgina Sandhu is currently an officer in training at Derbyshire Constabulary's headquarters in Ripley (Photo: Derbyshire Constabulary)Georgina Sandhu is currently an officer in training at Derbyshire Constabulary's headquarters in Ripley (Photo: Derbyshire Constabulary)
Georgina Sandhu is currently an officer in training at Derbyshire Constabulary's headquarters in Ripley (Photo: Derbyshire Constabulary)

"I saw an advert in the paper and just went for it. Within six weeks I’d started. It was a real eye-opener for me because I’d got quite a sheltered background so to come in and see the things you sometimes see that members of the public don’t generally realise happens, but I loved it.

"At the time you don’t realise, but you were always a minority. Say we had a team of 12, there were three females at the time which is quite a lot actually but as you’d progress through, you’d go to meetings and it was very male dominated, senior meetings it always was.

"There was at that point an attitude that it was females who would deal with rapes and children, so I was an officer who would do interviews with children and you train in dealing with rape.

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"It’s different now as anybody and everybody should, and has, a responsibility to deal with all matters irrespective or who is involved and actually needs to have those skills and abilities.

"When I joined, we were given a handbag and skirts. People did wear the skirts to court but I never used them – at that time I was thinking why a handbag? But about 10 or 20 years before me they probably were used.”

And it is not just attitudes that have seen a major improvement within Derbyshire’s policing teams.

Data from the Home Office shows that female recruits made up 50 per cent of the 264 police officers hired by Derbyshire Constabulary between April 2020 – when gender breakdowns of new officers were first recorded nationally – and March this year.

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This is also higher than across England and Wales as a whole, where 42 per cent of new police recruits were female.

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The ratio of female to male police officers at Derbyshire Constabulary has risen from 34 per cent in March 2019 to 38 per cent this year, but critics argue the uplift has not gone far enough to make police forces representative of their communities.

Chief Inspector Andrews added: “At Derbyshire it is really noticeable that actually, you’ve got some teams now where there’s more females on a shift than there are males.

"We’re starting to see – and I think it’s a really positive thing – more representation in rank.

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"When you start looking at the supervisors we’re now getting, those that are going through promotion actually from an equality point of view, there’s the recognition that women are as good as men if not better at these roles.

"Sometimes they’ve got different skills and abilities that actually are required in an organisation and that’s great. We’re definitely starting to see some big improvements – there’s still some way to go and always will be, but we’re getting to a far better position and seeing equality and diversity far more than we ever were before.”

Women made up at least half of new recruits in just three forces – Lancashire, Great Manchester, and Derbyshire – according to the Home Office data.

By contrast, Wiltshire Police recruited the fewest female officers, at just 33 per cent.

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The figures are a headcount of the number of people hired – women officers are also more likely to work part-time, meaning that the number of female police officers on the streets is likely to be lower than these numbers suggest.

Georgina Sandhu is among the latest round of recruits at Derbyshire Constabulary and is currently an officer in training at the force headquarters in Ripley.

She said: “I wanted to originally join the force when I left school but I actually went to university instead.

"I used to think I’m not big enough or I’m not physically the part to be a police officer but I’ve seen police officers in Derbyshire and other women of all shapes and sizes, they’ve been my role model without even knowing it because I thought if they can do it then why am I any different.

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"There’s a course that’s just come through today that is half women half men. Men and women can do everything and it’s the same with the police.

"When I was younger it wasn’t really portrayed that way. Looking back around 60 years, it said that only a man of 6ft could be in the police – but we need to tell people it is a job for both men and women because otherwise you’ll never know.”

Derbyshire Constabulary is currently recruiting for police community support officers, contact management operators and special constables, with police officer recruitment due to open next month.

You can apply to the available roles or express your interest in becoming a police officer on the Constabulary’s careers website: Home :: Derbyshire Constabulary Jobs.

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